Once Upon a Sky So Blue
by DarkJonerys
Summary: In the Enchanted Forest, she was the daughter of the Evil Queen. Now Evelyn is a girl trying to keep her younger brother, Henry, in line while questioning if the stories in his book are as real as he believes. Even though he insists, everything isn't greener on the other side of the curse when she has been a pawn in someone else's game the whole time.
1. The Sister

"Henry! We have been worried sick! Don't you ever do this to me again!" A girl who had been sitting on the front steps said as she ran up and pulled him into a hug. She looked a few years older than Henry from what Emma could tell, but she looked way too young to be wearing the black business dress she was in. She supposed that was how high society people dressed, since the mansion gave away their monetary status.

"I'm fine, Evie," Henry said and smiled into her shoulder. The girl reluctantly let go of him and ruffled his hair. He turned to Emma with a smile that had been absent moments before as he begged her not to take him home, "This is my sister, Evelyn."

It was obvious that his sister loved him very much judging by the way she was delighted to know he was safe, and it reassured Emma that Henry was given his best chance. She didn't think that he could have been adopted into a better household than what it appeared to be.

However, when Evelyn noticed the blonde woman for the first time she narrowed her eyes and put her arm on Henrys shoulder. She thought that Henry seemed to trust her too much, even though she was just a stranger. The blonde smiled sheepishly at her anyway, and she gave a small wave- only to be polite. The woman did bring Henry back home after all.

"I'm Emma. Emma Swan," the blonde said. She slowly started shuffling backwards not wanting to wait for Henry's parents to come out. Henry looked crushed, but she needed to get back to Boston. "It looks like I'll see you later kid. It was nice to meet you, Evelyn."

Emma didn't get the chance to leave, and she mentally cursed as the situation was going to get infinitely more awkward. Henry and Evelyn jumped when the door was flung open and their mother and Sheriff Graham ran outside. Regina was crying, and Emma felt a little guilty. "Henry! Henry, are you okay? Where have you been? What happened?"

As Regina embraced Henry he pushed her away and made a beeline for the door. "I found my real mom." Henry ran into the house and stomped up the stairs. Regina looked heart broken and focused in on the woman who had presumably just threatened her happiness. Evelyn's jaw dropped open in shock, and she was a little disappointed that Henry didn't tell her about his quest to find his birth mother even if she would have warned him against it.

"Y-you're Henry's birth mother?" Regina said, putting her hands around Evelyn's shoulders. Both of them had the same look on their face; however, while Evelyn's face just showed shock and sadness, Regina had contempt mixed in there as well. Emma would have laughed if the situation wasn't so awkward because Evelyn could have almost been her clone.

"Hi," Emma said quietly. The tension in the air was suffocating to say the least. Graham left to check on Henry, and Emma was left with Regina and her mini me. Just by looking her up and down, Emma knew that Regina had a superiority complex.

Regina was the first to break the staring contest and smiled at Emma. "How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you've ever tasted?"

"Got anything stronger?" Emma chuckled and followed Regina into the house. If anyone had told her that the events that had transpired this evening would occur on her 28th birthday, she would have thought that they were crazy. Little did she know, crazy wasn't going to be a word to adequately describe her life in the future.

When Emma stepped inside she looked around, and the interior of the house was absolutely gorgeous. It made her kind of sad that Henry didn't appreciate what he had. Even though Regina seemed a little rough around the edges and quite intimidating, Emma thought that she was probably trying her best to raise him. He seemed close with his sister at least. Evelyn ran up the winding staircase and disappeared into one of the rooms. She kind wished the girl had stayed, so she wouldn't have had to face Henry's mother alone.

Regina came back holding two glasses of cider, and Emma took it gladly. "How did he find me?" Emma asked. She doubted Regina knew, but she wanted to know nonetheless.

"No idea. I was told the birth mother didn't want to have any contact." Regina said, clearly pissed off that Henry found her. She swirled the liquid in her own glass before bringing it to her lips.

"You were told right," Emma said and shrugged. She took a gulp of cider to focus on something other than the woman in front of her. There was a picture of Henry, Evelyn, and Regina hanging on the wall. Henry looked slightly younger, but Regina and Evelyn looked the same. Emma didn't think anything of it.

"And the father? Do I need to be worried about him?" Regina prayed that little Emma was the only one she was up against. Emma didn't seem to be the type of person who would stay around and fight for what she wanted. She seemed to be more of the running away type.

"There was one, and he doesn't even know. You also don't have to worry about me," Emma said. She had no intention of trying to take Henry away from her. It was better that Henry's father never found out, although Emma was never going to see him again anyway. "What about Evelyn? Did you adopt her, also?"

Regina looked lost in thought for a moment. She set her drink down on one of the end tables, and smiled. "No. She is mine."

"I figured. I mean any kid that looks like they are dressed for a job interview is probably yours," Regina raised her eyebrow. Apparently Regina didn't have a sense of humor, and the tension was making Emma uncomfortable. She chugged down the rest of her cider and focused on a picture of the girl instead. She wondered if Henry was jealous. "So... do you have to worry about her father?"

"Miss Swan, I would appreciate it if you did not pry into my personal life," Regina sighed and Emma was confused because Regina had asked her the same exact question moments before. "He's dead. He died when she was young. I adopted Henry to fill the piece that was missing."

"So you gave her a brother instead of a dog?" Emma joked. Regina clearly wasn't amused and just wanted Emma Swan out of her and Henry's lives.

O.o.O

"Evie, I found my birth mom! Everything is going to be okay now," Henry said excitedly. He kicked his shoes off and happily flopped onto his bed. "Emma is going to save us!"

"Henry, I know you're excited and I know this has been the moment you were waiting for your entire life, but you already have a family that loves you. You need to remember that," Evelyn said quietly. She didn't know what to make of the situation, but she did know that her mother would want her to discourage him from talking to Emma again.

"Did mom tell you to say that?" Henry frowned. He knew Evie wanted the best for him, but sometimes she was too easily influenced by Regina. In fact, she did whatever their mother told her to do with no questions asked. He hoped that would change when Emma broke the curse.

"No. I came up here as soon as we came in the house to check on you, and I wanted to hear about your amazing adventure to find Emma."

"I took a bus," Henry smiled. Evelyn rolled her eyes. Henry giggled as she tried to tickle the information out of him. "I really did just take a bus to her apartment in Boston. The adventure is going to begin now because Emma is going to stay in Storybrooke, and she is going to break the Evil Queen's curse. I know you don't believe mom is evil, but she is. Emma is going to save the town."

"It was pretty evil when she forced us to eat brussel sprouts, but mom is not the Evil Queen," Evelyn laughed. Henry sighed because she never took anything seriously unless it made Regina happy, and accusing her of being the Evil Queen never did.

Evelyn suddenly leaned back to lie on top of Henry. Her eyes were closed and she puckered her lips. He tried to push her off. "Evie, come on. Get off! It's not funny."

"I'm Snow White, and I need a handsome prince to wake me from this dreadful sleeping curse," Evelyn said as Henry was still trying to wrestle her off of him. She tried not to smile as Henry laughed and was mad at her at the same time.

"Fine, but you're not Snow White," Henry gave in and kissed her cheek. She smiled and got up as Henry stuck his tongue out at her.

"Then who do you think I am?" Evelyn said heading towards the door. She looked back at him as he spoke.

"You are her little sister, Sky Blue. You are cursed, too, and that's why you can't remember. I'll let you read my book when I get it back,"

"Did you just make that up to include me? And where is the book?" Evelyn smirked. He probably hid it under his bed.

"Good night, Evie," Henry said sticking his tongue out again.

"All right, but this isn't over, Henry," Evelyn said. She shut the door behind her as she walked out.

O.o.O

Evelyn wondered why Henry would believe that the town was cursed. Leave it to Henry and his wild imagination to make up fake characters in order to include her in his daydreams that everyone in town was from a fairy tale. Also, the fact that he thought their mother was evil was stupid. She wasn't home all the time and was sometimes too strict, but that didn't mean that she was an evil person.

 _Maybe Henry is jealous of the time mom spends with me. Maybe that is why he is lashing out,_ she thought. Suddenly she felt terrible, but it wasn't entirely her fault that Henry never wanted to do anything that their mom wanted. Perhaps, leaving to find Emma was the only way he thought he could get attention, even though he never seemed to crave it and always pushed mom away. _But he can't possibly be that lonely because he has me._

The intoxicating aroma of apple turnovers warm from the oven permeated through the halls and brought her out of her thoughts. As she ran down the stairs and made it to the kitchen a huge grin appeared on her face. There was nothing she loved more than her mother's apple turnovers.

Regina sat at the head of the table holding a glass of wine. Her face was still a little red from crying, but she smiled as Evelyn came in and sat down. A plate with a turnover was already placed in front of where she normally sat- Regina's right hand side.

"Thank you," Evelyn said too quietly and mentally berated herself. She hoped everything could go back to normal if she pretended that everything was the same, but it just wasn't. Unfortunately, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that nothing was ever going to go back to the way it was. Emma may have left, but it wasn't like Henry didn't know where she lived. She may even want to come over to see him from time to time now that she knew who he was.

"Evelyn, do you know anything about a fairy tale book that Henry miraculously possesses," Regina said short and to the point.

The sinking feeling in her stomach came back as she willed herself to say no. She didn't want her mother to be upset, but she couldn't hold it in. Every time she wanted to lie to Regina it always felt like something was prohibiting her from doing so. "Yes, he thinks everyone in Storybrooke is a character from his book. No one can remember anything because they were all cursed by the Evil Queen, which is you. Apparently I'm supposed to be Snow White's sister; isn't that funny? I think he just made it up to include me." She shrugged and stuffed the turnover into her mouth.

Regina shook her head at her daughter's lack of table manners. However, she maintained a blank face as she sipped her wine. "And do you believe him?"

Evelyn swallowed and looked confused, "Of course not. Although it would be rather interesting, wouldn't it? Not that I think you're evil, but a huge castle and a little magic in our lives wouldn't hurt."

"I do imagine magic would be useful," Regina said. She stood up and took Evelyn's plate to put it in the dishwasher. "However, you have school tomorrow, and it's late." Evelyn groaned.

She came up behind Regina and put her arms around her. "Good night, mom. I love you."

"Good night, Evelyn," Regina said and kissed the top of her head cherishing the moment. "I love you." _More than life itself,_ she thought.

When the pair of them stopped hugging, Evelyn went to bed. As soon as Regina couldn't hear Evelyn's footsteps on the stairs she threw the empty wine glass at the wall. She was finally content and everything she had worked for was going to fall apart if she couldn't convince Henry that she wasn't the Evil Queen. She doubted Evelyn would even want to stay with her if the curse broke because everything she had ever done was in the name of her daughter.

* * *

O.o **The Enchanted Forest** o.O

Regina cringed as she watched Snow, an 11 year old girl, tote her baby around like a doll. Snow bounced the infant around as she walked around the room and animatedly waved a metal rattle in the little girl's face, with no intention to deposit it into her tiny outstretched hands.

While the baby was often mesmerized with Snow, she started fussing as Snow continued to tease her with the rattle. Regina wanted nothing more than to rip the poor child out of Snow's arms, but Snow would often beg for more time. Regina didn't want to listen to her incessant whining or the possibility of getting scolded by her fool of a husband that she needed to be more trusting of Snow. Instead, she took a deep breath to calm herself and waited for the baby to start crying.

Although Snow meant well, she was sometimes too careless with her little sister and had nearly dropped her on several occasions. Regina couldn't stand Snow on any given day, but whenever Snow cheerily skipped into her chambers and practically demanded to hold her sister (and usually almost killed the baby in the process) she was positively enraged. Regina did not go through a long heartbreaking pregnancy to have Snow accidentally harm her daughter.

Regina had noticed she had fallen pregnant a few weeks after the wedding, much to her chagrin, and she had hated every moment of it. Perhaps, if her child had been Daniel's she would have cherished every moment of her pregnancy, but Snow had ruined any chances of that ever happening. She prayed the baby would be a boy to eliminate Snow's chance of becoming queen, whereas she knew that everyone else in the kingdom was hoping for another princess so Snow would stay first in line. But life never went her way it would seem, and if it had, Leopold would have done everything he could to make sure his precious Snow White still got the kingdom.

Even though the last thing she wanted was a baby, she was not her mother. She was going to try to be the best mother for her daughter because she was miserable, and perhaps the child would fill the void in her life if she raised the princess to love her unconditionally.

Regina remembered that after all of the maids came in to change the bedding and clean up their queen and the baby princess after the birth, she just wanted everyone in the room to leave. Several servants still flitted about and several nannies stood to the side waiting for her to give one of them the baby. Snow ran into the room as soon as the midwife came out and gave her permission to enter. Snow sat next to her on the bed cooing at the sleeping baby. Leopold came in shortly after beaming with pride. It was all too much for Regina, especially when he announced that they would call the baby Sky Blue after the color of her eyes (and perhaps to make Snow feel better with her dreadful name), without any regard for what she wanted. It was a blessing when both of them left to give her time to rest. Unfortunately, Princess Sky soon started to cry.

"The princess is hungry, your majesty," Regina remembered the old nanny in the middle say as she pushed the young one next to her closer to the bed. The girl looked around the same age as herself and had fear in her eyes. The old one gestured to the one she pushed, "This is Sophia, she is one of the nursemaids. She will take care of nighttime feeding. Kate will do mornings, and Lucy will do afternoons."

"That won't be necessary," Regina said. All of them were visibly uncomfortable. The old one looked horrified. "I intend to do most of it myself."

"It isn't customary your majesty. Queen Eva never fed Snow," said the old nanny, not realizing that that was the wrong thing to say. Regina was visibly seething; the residual pain of the birth and the crying baby only worsened her mood.

"We can teach you, your majesty," Sophia squeaked pulling up the petite blond one, Lucy, who nodded, "It's no trouble at all."

"The rest of you are permanently dismissed. I do not want to see you again," Regina said to the remaining three nannies. The old one looked like she was going to protest, but then thought better of it as she looked at Regina's murderous face. She scurried out with the rest of them.

Suddenly Regina was pulled out of her memories as Sky started to cry. Snow reluctantly handed her the baby and skipped out of the room. Regina smirked as her child quieted down as soon as she was put in her arms. She rose from the chair and decided to walk outside for a bit and visit her apple tree.

As Regina walked down the hallway the servants politely bowed their heads down, however their eyes still followed her- the Child Queen with a baby of her own. She didn't pay them any attention as they were beneath her, and she did not care if they thought that raising her child was unfit for the Queen. The stares continued until she came up to her apple tree, but at least no one ever bothered her there.

"Daniel wanted to name our first daughter, Evelyn, after his mother. We talked about it for hours," Regina said as she ran her fingers through the baby's soft black hair knowing she couldn't understand her. Tears pricked in her eyes as anger gripped her heart. "We were going to be a family, until your horrid sister ruined everything."

"Missed me, Dearie?"

Regina whipped around and came face to face with Rumplestiltskin. He let out an eerie giggle as Regina took a step back right before he was about to touch the baby.

Perhaps she would try to learn magic after all.


	2. Once Upon a Time

O.o **The Enchanted Forest** o.O

"Snow! Snow! Wake up!" Sky said jumping up and down on Snow's bed. She groaned and pulled the covers up over her head. "Snow, wake up! Father Christmas came last night!"

Snow White ignored her and had no ambition to get out of bed. Sky stopped jumping on Snow's bed and resorted to pulling her arm as hard as she could, but it was no use. There was no way a six year old girl could drag Snow out of bed. However, Snow finally decided to get up so her sister would stop antagonizing her. As she quickly sat up, the little girl soon lost her footing and fell backwards onto the bed.

Snow chuckled as her little sister sat up and struggled to get her long dark hair out of her face. The blue ribbon in her hair came untied. "Come here, I'll fix your bow." Sky crawled into her lap and Snow slowly tied it.

"Thank you, Snow! Now come on. Father Christmas came last night!"

Snow smiled at her over excited little sister. She wished that she was excited for Christmas as well, but in all honesty her father always brought her gifts. She played along anyway, just to make Sky happy. "Alright, give me some time to get dressed."

"Mummy said I could stay in my nightgown; only to open presents though. You can stay in yours, too." Sky said twirling around, so the bottom of it would flare out. The color of it matched her eyes. Snow didn't think it was proper if she wore her nightgown downstairs at her age, so she politely declined.

"Good morning, your highnesses," A few maids came in and started making Snow's bed. One of them opened the curtains to let the natural light through, which made Sky wince.

Snow quickly slipped on the gown that was laid out for her and decided to finish getting ready later. There was no use to make her impatient little sister wait any longer. She was already pouting as she paced back and forth.

"I'm ready, Sky," Snow said holding out her hand. She took her big sister's hand and grinned.

Sky practically pulled Snow along as she tried to run down the halls and down the stairs. Snow chuckled at her eagerness instead of scolding her. She hoped that her sister would always know happiness and retain her kind, gentle nature as she grew older.

"Merry Christmas!" Leopold bellowed as the two girls made it into the drawing room. Snow immediately went to greet her father, whereas her sister looked for Regina.

Regina sat on a white chaise lounge on the opposite side of the room as him. Sky immediately ran to her and climbed up onto her lap. "Merry Christmas, Mummy!"

"Merry Christmas my darling," Regina said as she hugged her daughter. However, her eyes were glazed over and not focusing on anything. Usually her daughter provided some relief to her wretched life, but she felt nothing. Regina plastered a fake smile on her face for show.

Snow looked over and smiled. Even though Regina and her weren't as close as they used to be, she still greatly admired her. Not many royals would be as determined to pay attention to their children as Regina did to Sky. It was always Regina who her little sister called for when she was upset, not a nanny. It warmed her heart.

"The tree looks beautiful!" Sky said. It almost touched the ceiling and was gorgeously decorated. It had taken the palace staff days to finish it. Sky thought the best part was the piles of presents wrapped in white and blue under the tree. "Can I open presents now?"

Regina nodded, not caring what Leopold thought. Both Sky and Snow eagerly went to their respective pile of presents.

Sky had gotten many wonderful items. A new necklace already hung around her neck, and she clutched a doll made in her likeness. However, one last box was unopened. When she finally came over to it and opened the lid, she was confused. It was a polished blue leather saddle with her name engraved on the side. She didn't know how to ride, but she thought it was beautiful nonetheless.

After the girls were done, Snow went to her room to finish getting ready and Regina followed Sky into hers.

Regina intricately braided her daughter's hair after she had gotten dressed into a pale blue and silver gown that had been made special for the Christmas feast. "I have a surprise for you," Regina said quietly. She placed a small diamond tiara on Sky's head after she had finished with her hair and tied the bow on her white ermine fur cloak. She squealed in delight. "But you must not make a scene."

"Oh, I promise, Mummy. I won't say a word!" Sky said rather excitedly. Regina frowned, but guided her out of the door.

The journey to the surprise was a long and harrowing road to the little girl who just wanted to run to see what it was. As Regina guided her outside the palace towards the location where the gift was, Sky waved at all of the guards walking around them. They didn't wave back, but it gave her something to do. Regina also scolded her for kicking snow at one of them, but the man just smiled and didn't seem to mind.

Finally, they stopped in front of the royal stables. Two guards opened the door for them. Regina led her inside and stopped in front of one of the stalls.

When her mother opened it, Sky peered inside. There was a jet-black foal sitting on the ground, and she thought it was the most adorable thing in the world. It got up and stumbled over to her. Sky put her hand on its nose and squealed.

"He's yours," Regina said to Sky. She jumped up and down excitedly. Regina crouched down to Sky's eye level, "When I was young my father gave me a foal to raise, and now I will give you one. You have to take care of him, and maybe one day he will mean as much to you as Rocinante does to me. When the both of you get a little bigger, I will teach you how to ride."

"Thank you, Mummy! I think I'll name him Nox."

"I'm glad you like him," Regina said. She actually cracked a real smile as she closed and locked the stall door. "Tomorrow, perhaps, would be a good day to start learning how to take care of him."

"Mummy, can we tend to your apple tree before we go inside? Only for a little while?" Sky said as she and Regina began walking back to the castle.

Her apple tree didn't really need tending; not after she had begun learning magic from Rumplestiltskin, but no one needed to know that. Spending time with her daughter made her heart hurt less than when she was alone and ignored by her husband or in the presence of Snow White.

"Of course, my darling." Regina said. "I think some of them are ripe for picking."

* * *

O.o **Storybrooke** o.O

"Hey, Evelyn, wait up," she heard a voice call out as she walked quickly to the bus after school. Henry hadn't gotten up to go to school, and she had a sinking suspicion that he wasn't sick. She whipped her head around and came face to face with a boy in her class. He had floppy brown hair and dark blue eyes. His uniform looked shabby and worn, and there was dirt on his chin.

"I'm Dillard. Just Dill is fine," he said and held his hand out for Evelyn to shake. When she just looked at him, he slowly lowered his hand and gulped. "I'm in your class, and I was just wondering if you... well would you like to... every day after school I help my father in the-"

"Evelyn, get in the car!" Regina yelled as she pulled up in her black Mercedes. She rarely ever picked her up from school. Judging by the look on her mother's face something was wrong.

"It was nice to meet you, Dill, but I have to go. I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow," Evelyn said before running to her mom's car. Dill had a sullen look on his face but waved as she left.

"Who was that?" Regina asked as Evelyn hopped into the front seat. She gripped the steering wheel rather tightly.

"Just a boy in my class. I don't really know him," Evelyn sighed. She recognized him of course, but she never knew his name. In fact, she thought that he seemed oddly familiar even though she couldn't remember a time when they had actually spoken before today. "Is Henry alright?"

Regina gripped the steering wheel even tighter, since Evelyn clearly didn't know where he was. "Henry is missing again. He never showed up for school. Did you know anything about him stealing a credit card from Mary Margaret Blanchard to find his birth mother?"

"He stole a credit card from his teacher? And he didn't think to buy me anything?" Evelyn said surprised. Regina glared and her grin faltered. "I know you are worried about where he is right now, but I'm sure he just needed some time to think. He just found his birth mother, and it must be a terribly confusing time for him. I know you don't want to hear it, but Emma seems nice at least. I think he thought that she might want to stay and get to know him."

"Emma didn't leave, yet," Regina said in a murderous tone, which did not go unnoticed by her daughter.

"Oh, so she decided to save the town after all, then," Evelyn joked. Regina didn't say anything as she pulled up in the driveway.

"Beginning tomorrow, I want you to start watching Henry," Regina said as both of them got out of the car. Evelyn's jaw dropped. "Everywhere he goes, you go. Do you understand?"

"But Mom! I have better things to do than be Henry's glorified baby sitter!" Evelyn protested.

"You will do this, Evelyn. Maybe if you would assert yourself, there would be no need to follow Henry because he would be following you," Regina said and walked into the house. Evelyn ran to catch up.

"I'll watch him on two conditions," Evelyn said with her hands on her hips. "When Emma leaves the town and Henry can be trusted not to run away again, I want you to let me take riding lessons. For the second request, I want a car when I'm old enough to drive.

Regina didn't think Evelyn was in a position to demand anything or make deals with her, but the requests weren't outlandish. She would most likely forget anyway as things went back to normal. If everything went the way Regina hoped it would, Evelyn would remain thirteen forever. She would never learn to drive, so a car wasn't necessary.

"Deal," Regina said and smiled. "Now, what would you like for dinner?"

…

Henry finally came back, and he was with Emma. Evelyn was sitting in the family room finishing up her homework as she heard her mother and Emma talking. Her mother was harsh and went straight to the point. Regina went on about how she was Henry's mother and how she wanted Emma out of the town. She prayed Emma would leave, so she wouldn't have to watch Henry for the rest of her life.

When Emma left, her mother went upstairs and came back a few minutes later with a large book. Evelyn assumed it was Henry's fairy tale book. Without making any noise Evelyn stood in the doorway watching. Regina went up to the mirror on the wall and looked completely livid as she stared at her reflection. If the book did contain the events of her life in the Enchanted Forest- of anyone's previous lives- everything she had built was slowing unraveling.

Evelyn wanted to know what her mother was thinking. In that moment, she could almost picture her mother in a gaudy black gown like an evil queen, but the image in her mind was gone as soon as it appeared. She watched Regina tear her eyes away from the mirror and head to the living room. Evelyn quietly walked back to the couch and grabbed her backpack. Regina was still in the living room, so she padded up the spiral staircase and ran into her room.

She threw her backpack by her desk and quickly laid out her school uniform. She prayed her mother left the book downstairs somewhere in the open. She had the feeling that time was running out to read it. A part of her wondered if there was a little truth to what Henry was saying, and the other part of her wanted to prove him wrong. She hurriedly pulled on her silk pajamas and a bathrobe.

Evelyn jumped when the door opened. "I was just going to bed," Regina said peeking inside. She was curious as to why Evelyn looked like she got caught doing something, but she decided to ignore it. "Don't stay up too late."

Evelyn nodded as her mother closed the door again. She sat on her bed and waited for a while hoping her mother had fallen asleep. Her heart rate picked up as she cracked the door open. Regina's door was closed and there was no light coming from under it.

Evelyn carefully walked down the stairs and headed for the living room. _Where would she hide it?_ She thought as she quietly looked around. She rummaged through several of the many drawers in the room with no luck. After all, her mother might have put it anywhere.

Finally, after she decided that she would give up after looking through the last drawer, she grinned as it sat there waiting for her to read it. She left the drawer open to make sure she put it back in the right one and headed to the family room.

Evelyn didn't turn on a lamp. The moon already provided enough illumination, and she had the illogical notion that if she did her mother would wake up. Her heart started beating a little faster as she opened the cover and read the four iconic words, _Once Upon a Time._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Is it ok with everyone that I don't italicize the Enchanted Forest flashbacks? A lot of it hurts my eyes when I read it on my phone, so it's just my preference. Also, if anyone thinks I am using too much of the script from the show please tell me. Some of it is necessary for the plot, but I want everyone to enjoy this story. Also, I am an author who is open to suggestions, so if you want to see something or you have a questions please write it in with your review!


	3. The First Lie

Evelyn woke up on the couch with dried tears on her cheeks. The back cover of the book was open revealing the ripped pages. There were also some pages gone in the middle, but they didn't seem to interfere with the story. She thought she would have to give Henry a stern talking to as she jumped up to put the book away. Luckily, her mother hadn't come downstairs yet. Still very tired and a little overwhelmed at what she had read in Henry's book, she trudged up to her room. She put her school uniform on and flopped onto her bed.

She jolted awake to the sound of a clock moving, and she immediately ran to the window. _No way._ The clock hadn't moved as long as she could remember. Maybe Henry had asked for someone to fix it, since he was so sure that it meant that the curse was breaking.

The book was interesting to say the least, even though she didn't get to read the ending. She wondered if Henry had read the same book because where he felt hatred for the Evil Queen, she had felt sadness and a little bit of horror.

She paid attention to Sky Blue, the character Henry said she was, and her short part of the story was quite sad really. Princess Sky was the sweet daughter of the Evil Queen, and the princess adored her mother. The Queen tried to love her all the same, but lost her in her quest for revenge.

She thought maybe if Henry was right, she would remember something. But Henry was just a boy with an overactive imagination, and she felt silly for thinking otherwise. The clock moving was just a coincidence, nothing more. As she walked down the stairs, she could hear her mother yelling at Henry.

She walked right past them and went to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. As she grabbed an apple, she heard the door slam shut. It was only day one of babysitting Henry, and he already ran away. She groaned and ran out the door after him. Unfortunately, he had already disappeared.

…

After looking for almost an hour, Evelyn had decided to head to the bus stop. Hopefully Henry was already there or would actually decide to come to school. Suddenly, she saw Henry and Emma walking towards her. Emma waved as he ran to the bus stop.

"Well, it was nice of you to finally drop by," Evelyn said to Henry. "I've been looking for you all morning."

"I was just with Emma," Henry said and shrugged as if that was the only explanation that he needed to give.

Evelyn knew he was concocting some sort of plan that would only end up hurting their family. Perhaps, if she played along, watching Henry would be easier. If Emma was using his childish fantasies in order to get her to trust him in order to take him away, she would be the one to put an end to it. Well, she would probably go to Sheriff Graham, but that was beside the point.

"I read the book last night, Henry," Evelyn said as they walked into the bus. Evelyn sat next to him, and Henry had a huge smile on his face. "I don't remember anything."

"But you do believe me though?" Henry said expectantly. She didn't want to disappoint him.

"Look, I don't know what to believe. I want to, but..." Actually in all honestly she didn't want to believe him. Her life was fine the way it was, and she didn't think that the curse breaking would help anyone out.

"You don't think mom is the Evil Queen," Henry supplied.

"It's like you said. I can't ever really believe you if I'm cursed, too. I want to help you though," She said. Of course she didn't believe him, but he didn't need to know that. "What happened to the missing pages?"

"I ripped them out, so mom doesn't figure out who Emma is. She's the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White; the Savior. I'll let you read them if you promise to give them back after school," Henry said pulling out the missing pages out of his backpack. He neglected to give her the one's he had taken out from the middle.

Evelyn took them and shoved them into her own backpack, "Emma is supposed to be like my niece then? Isn't it a little strange that she is twice my age?"

"You've been the same age for the last 28 years, Evie, and I guess you are sort of like her aunt." Henry said. "Oh my gosh how did I not think of that! That means that you are kind of like my great aunt or something! Huh, isn't that crazy?"

"I'm still your superior," Evelyn said as the bus stopped in front of the school. They both smiled.

"If Emma didn't come, it would have only taken me a few years to catch up with you," Henry giggled. When they got off the bus he hugged her. "Bye, Evie. We'll talk more later!"

There was no way she had been fourteen for the past 28 years. It wasn't possible. She could picture herself as a little girl holding Henry as a baby. She couldn't remember much before, which made sense because she would have only been three when they had adopted Henry. However, there weren't many pictures of them in the house.

 _Where is all of this coming from? I don't really believe Henry, so I have to stop this right now,_ Evelyn thought as she walked into her classroom. She noticed Dill sitting in the back of the class as she took her seat in the front. Instead of paying attention to the same algebra lessons she had been doing for the past 28 years (although she didn't know that of course), she pulled out the pages Henry had given her to finish the rest of the story.

…

"Henry, I hardly doubt mom would lie about Emma stealing your file. Why would Archie even lie for her? And even if both of them are lying it is illegal for Emma to look at it without mom's permission," Evelyn said as they walked to the Storybrooke town hall to go to meet Regina in her office.

Henry sulked the whole way there. Evelyn didn't understand why. Mary Margaret Blanchard bailed Emma out of jail, so it wasn't like he had much to be sad about. She almost thought it would be a better idea to ask Mary Margaret for money rather than her mom.

"Mom is evil," Henry said, but Evelyn was too preoccupied looking at something. "Evie? What's wrong?"

"No..." Evelyn whispered as she ran to the side of the building. Henry followed after her and shouted her name.

A large branch was cut off her mother's apple tree and it was laying on the ground. Another was missing from the tree altogether. She sank to her knees and sat amongst the apples that had tumbled to the ground earlier in the day.

"Evie! Evie!" Henry yelled as he tried to pull her up. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared at nothing. Henry screamed her name, but she didn't move. "Ok, please stay here. I'll go get Mom!"

"Something is wrong with Evie!" Henry yelled as he ran into Regina's office right as Emma said Operation Cobra was crazy. "You think I'm crazy?

Regina ignored Emma and quickly jogged as fast as she could in her heels after Henry. "Evelyn! Henry!" Regina called out frantically. She prayed that whatever had happened to Evelyn, she would be ok.

"Over here," Henry called angrily. Regina whipped around and walked quickly to where Henry was sitting next to Evelyn. He was crying, but she wasn't sure if it was because of Emma or his sister.

"Evelyn! Evelyn, can you hear me?" Regina said kneeling on the ground. She held her in her arms and started crying. She desperately wished she had magic to help her daughter. "Henry, wait for me in the car."

Henry ran to the car and saw Emma walking away in the distance. He was too upset with her and scared for Evelyn that he didn't try to chase after her.

"Mom?" Evelyn said as she was broken out of her trance. She looked around confused. "The tree. It was cut down." Regina wiped the tears around her eyes.

"When I was little, I remember, I used to help you care for it. It was before Henry," Evelyn said. She imagined it was in a courtyard, but the image in her mind was that of the apple tree in Henry's book. She was just filling in the blank memories with fairy tales.

"Yes, you did," Regina said hoping she was referring to their daily cultivation of the tree during the repetitive 18 years before Henry came into their lives. Evelyn smiled. "Now let's get you back home."

"No, I'm fine. I can walk Henry home from therapy, so you can finish working," Evelyn said standing up. Regina gave her a look and didn't believe her. "I'm okay, really. I just... I was just thinking. Archie is sort of like a doctor, so I think I'll be in good hands. Henry should know how to dial 911."

Regina finally gave in as they pulled in front of Archie's office. It would be easier if she didn't have to pick Henry up later. After all, it wasn't like anyone in the town, except for Henry and Emma, could die until the curse broke. "I want the both of you to come straight home after the session."

Both children nodded, and Regina drove back to her office with dread in her heart. Something told her that a memory from the Enchanted Forest had flashed in Evelyn's mind.

…

"You know, that umbrella kind of is my good luck charm. Is that why you think I'm Jiminy Cricket?" Archie said trying to get Henry to talk to him. Evelyn played with Pongo in the corner while they were talking. It was no wonder why Henry hated going to therapy; it was extremely boring. She wondered if Regina would allow a dog in the house.

"I don't think you're anyone," Henry said. He sulked on the couch and looked at the ground. Maybe he was done with all the fairy tale nonsense.

As Evelyn thought that she would ask her mother for a dog because Henry would benefit from one as well, Emma barged into the room. Henry barely looked up, which was odd. Evelyn frowned; this was a private session after all.

"Miss Swan! Look, I can explain. The Mayor forced me to-"

Emma cut him off, "I know. Don't worry about it. I get it. Henry, I'm sorry."

"I don't want to talk to you," Henry said. Evelyn got up and decided that they would leave early, since this clearly wasn't helping him at all.

Emma was going to say something rude about Regina, but she figured that Evelyn wouldn't ever warm up to her if she did. The sooner she could convince Evelyn that she wasn't a threat, the sooner she could possibly convince her mother. "Henry, there is one simple reason I stayed here. You. I wanted to get to know you."

"You think I'm crazy," Henry said sadly as he grabbed his sister's hand. Both of them turned to leave.

"Henry wait. I think the curse is crazy, but that doesn't mean that it isn't true. It is a lot to ask anyone to believe in, but there are a lot of crazy things in this world. The only way to break it is by tricking the Evil Queen into thinking that we are non-believers. That way, she's not on to us. Isn't that what Operation Cobra was all about?" Emma said and Henry grinned. Evelyn sighed because she knew Emma wasn't going to be leaving any time soon.

"Brilliant!" Henry ran up and hugged Emma. She reluctantly hugged him back.

Emma let go of Henry and walked to the fireplace. She threw in the pages that Henry ripped out from the back of his book into the fire. Evelyn looked horrified, but Henry's face lit up. "Now we have the advantage."

"I knew you were here to help me," he said looking at Evelyn. "To help us."

"I am. And nothing is going to stop that." Emma said determined to help Henry get through whatever was causing him to think that everyone was a fairy tale character. Playing along would not hurt. "Now why don't we walk to Granny's and I'll get the both of you some hot chocolate? My treat."

"We're supposed to walk straight home," Evelyn said right as Henry said, "Yes!"

"Well, Granny's is on the way, and I thought that the both of you could use some time to just be kids. You can text Regina to tell her where you both are going," Emma said. Henry pleaded with her to let them go. Evelyn agreed and hoped her mother wouldn't find out that they were with Emma.

Emma ordered the three of them hot chocolate as soon as they got to the diner. Henry went to the bathroom, leaving Emma and Evelyn alone at the table.

"Does Henry think you are a character in his book?" Emma asked Evelyn, genuinely curious. While Emma wasn't good at guessing anyway, she had absolutely no clue which character Evelyn could be.

"Snow White's sister," Evelyn said and shrugged. She wondered why Emma cared. "It was an interesting story, I suppose."

"And do you believe? Do you think the town is under a curse?" Emma asked. Snow White didn't have a sister in the Disney version, and she just didn't think that Mary Margaret was her sister. Maybe it was the large age difference.

"No more than you do," Evelyn said trying to sound vague. Emma nodded. Both of them felt uncomfortable with the awkward silence.

"Do you own any t-shirts and jeans?" Emma said trying to make small talk. Evelyn was wearing a gray dress similar to the one Regina was wearing that day.

"Do you own any?" Evelyn chuckled. Emma was wearing an almost see through white tank top and her red leather jacket. Evelyn was pretty sure she had been wearing the same outfit for the past few days. "Mom says if I ever want to be mayor, I have to look professional, so this is what she buys me. I do own some blouses."

"I didn't exactly come prepared," Emma said smiling at Evelyn. "Tell you what, maybe when my car isn't impounded, I could take you shopping and you could pick out whatever you want."

"I don't think that is such a good idea," Evelyn said as Ruby brought the three hot chocolates over to the table. Emma thanked her. "But I appreciate it."

"Look kid, you can be your own person if you want to. I'm not saying you should start staying out after curfew and breaking the rules, but you don't have to keep trying to prove yourself. It seems to me that you only do things if it pleases your mother. If Regina hasn't realized that you are a fantastic kid by now, I don't think she ever will," Emma said sipping her hot chocolate. She hoped she wasn't overstepping, but Evelyn needed to hear it. Regina was brain washing her, and she didn't even realize it.

"My mom only wants the best for us," Evelyn said quietly. But maybe Emma was right. She didn't have that many interests that her mother wasn't interested in.

"I'm sure she does," Emma responded as Henry ran to the table.

"What did I miss?" Henry said excitedly. "The hot chocolate is here!"

Honestly, Evelyn had never had so much fun in her life. Somehow Henry had a deck of Uno cards with him and they played a few games. All three of them joked and laughed the entire time. Henry had snorted some of the hot chocolate out of his nose and both girls had completely lost it.

"How about I walk you two home. It's getting late, and I wouldn't want you to get in trouble," Emma said after Evelyn had won yet again. Both of the kids frowned, but didn't protest.

As the three of them walked hand in hand down Mifflin Street, they were all happier than they had ever been. Both of the kids thanked Emma as they walked up to their house. Emma waved and headed back to her car as the both of them went through the front door.

Henry ran straight up to his room, while Evelyn went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Evelyn's breath caught in her throat when she saw Regina sitting calmly at the kitchen table.

"Would you like to tell me where you were?" Regina said raising her eyebrow. Evelyn's heart started beating rapidly. Her mother was utterly terrifying when she was calm. She almost wished she would start yelling.

"Henry, got out of his session early, so we went to Granny's to get hot chocolate. We didn't realize it was so late," Evelyn said not meeting Regina's eyes.

"And it was just the two of you?" Regina said thinking about how Gold told her they were happily hanging out with Emma. She knew Evelyn couldn't lie to her.

The sinking feeling in her stomach didn't happen. "Yes, it was just us," Evelyn said. She didn't even feel guilty as she turned away and walked out of the room. Regina was fuming because she obviously knew it was not the truth.

That was the first time Evelyn had lied to Regina in over 28 years.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Please let me know how you think this is going! Also, do you want more Sky Blue flashbacks or more of Storybrooke?


	4. John Doe

**Author's note:** Since today is the last time a new episode of OUAT airs, I figured I should update. Leave me a review to let me know what you think!

* * *

Henry had gotten it into his head that the mysterious John Doe at the hospital was Prince Charming. He practically begged Mary Margaret to read his fairy tale book to him in hopes that he would remember who he was.

Evelyn thought it was stupid as everyone who had read the book didn't remember anything, but she just went along with it. She went on his missions with Emma without telling her mother. Emma was like the fun older sister that she never had, and she was slowly growing on her. It was quite fun to pretend to be on a secret mission with Henry, even if it was childish.

The past three days had been wonderful, even if Henry had been dragging her around everywhere in Storybrooke to have secret meetings with her and Emma. Like Henry, she didn't have many friends in Storybrooke, and she liked the feeling to be apart of something.

She couldn't believe that their mom had bought Henry's lie that they were going to the arcade. They had been secretly hanging out with Emma after school when she was at work, so she doubted that they would be allowed to roam around freely on a Saturday.

Regina wouldn't be too happy if she knew they were at Granny's eating breakfast with Emma, waiting for Mary Margaret to give them the scoop on what happened when she read to John Doe. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her.

"Is that mom's shirt?" Evelyn asked Emma. Henry had asked Evelyn to distract their mom so he could look for something. Apparently he had been looking in their mom's closet for a shirt for Emma to wear.

"Don't worry. She'll never notice. Mom never notices when Evie wears some of her clothes, although I think she secretly likes it and never says anything," Henry said. Evelyn playfully pushed him, but he wasn't joking.

"Don't fight," Emma scolded. To think she had been alone less than a week ago wishing that someone could fill the empty place in her heart. Now she had a son, his sister, and a friend in Mary Margaret. Perhaps, she even had an enemy in Regina, but Regina should be grateful that she had been watching her kids. "Does she even know where you are?"

"Henry told her we were at the arcade. We were thinking of going there first, but since you offered to buy us breakfast we just pocketed the money she gave us. I feel bad, but it's kind of exciting go behind her back," Evelyn said and took a bite of her omelet. Henry gave her the 'I told you so' look, and she rolled her eyes.

"Right. Well, I was not the one who corrupted you," Emma said and Henry giggled. Okay maybe she did, but Evelyn needed to loosen up before she turned into Regina. "And she bought that?"

"She wants to believe it, so she does," Henry said and shrugged. Emma sighed. "Oh look, there is Mary Margaret!"

Mary Margaret hurriedly walked over to them. Her face was red, and she looked flustered. Henry broke into a huge grin as she came up to their booth. Evelyn and Emma held their breaths and hoped Henry wouldn't be too disappointed when she told him that nothing happened.

"He woke up," She said. Evelyn and Emma looked shocked. Henry smiled even bigger. "I mean, he didn't 'wake up' wake up, but he grabbed my hand."

"We have to go back. You have to read to him again. He is remembering!" Henry shouted. Evelyn bit her lip and Emma's eyes were wide.

"Look, kid, the guy probably hasn't had anyone talk to him for hours on end before. It was probably just a reflex to the noise," Emma rationed. Henry frowned and Mary Margaret looked a bit defeated. "Oh, come on you two. The chances of him actually waking up are slim to none.

"But there is a chance, even if it's almost impossible. Maybe we should," Evelyn said. "I mean Mary Margaret has been reading to him all night. If he is disorientated, maybe she would be able to calm him down."

Mary Margaret smiled at Evelyn. There was something about her that just made her want to fling her arms around the girl and hold her close, "Let's go."

"You don't believe he is really Prince Charming do you?" Emma asked quietly because that's all she needed. Mary Margaret looked so hopeful, that Emma wasn't positive that her head was on straight. After all, she knew that Mary Margaret wanted to find true love, even if she claimed that she didn't believe in it.

"Of course not. Somehow, in some way, I touched him," she said as they all walked out of Granny's.

Evelyn called shotgun, while Emma protested. She hopped in the passenger side seat before Emma was even near the car. Henry laughed while Emma told Evelyn to move because she was older.

"Actually, according to Henry, I'm thirteen years older than you. So that automatically means that you have to sit in back," Evelyn said and blew her a kiss. Emma groaned like a child.

"Emma, just get in the back seat," Mary Margaret chuckled. She didn't hear what they were talking about, but she didn't want to get into it. She felt a bit protective over Evelyn, so she took her side instead.

Emma slammed the door and sulked in the back with Henry. She stuck out her tongue when Evelyn was looking in the mirror. Evelyn smirked and looked just like Regina. It was quite uncanny, and it made Emma uncomfortable. Emma quickly looked out the window instead.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Mary Margaret, Evie is your sister!" Henry said as they were on the way to the hospital.

"Ah, so you're the infamous Snow White," Evelyn said as Mary Margaret blushed. "It kind of makes sense. You like birds and stuff."

"And what about you my sweet little Sky Blue?" Mary Margaret chuckled. Emma had told her already. Evelyn smirked again. "Do you like to dance, and please, and sing? You were also good on a horse if I can recall from the book."

"I used to like pleasing everyone, I don't know. Maybe I still do. As for dancing and singing, I'm afraid I have never tried. I've never ridden either, but maybe one day that will change. Mom said that I can take riding lessons in the future," Evelyn said excitedly. Mary Margaret smiled and kept her eyes on the road. Evelyn wasn't her sister, but it would be nice to get to know her as herself, rather than just as Henry's sister.

Henry looked a bit jealous. He wanted to learn how to ride, too. Emma just shook her head at the exchange and put her arm around Henry's shoulders. While it had sounded like a good idea to play along at first, none of them were ever going to put Henry's fantasies to rest if they kept acting like this.

Emma thought that something had to be seriously wrong with them when all four of them practically jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital the second Mary Margaret had parked the car.

…

John Doe was missing much to everyone's dismay. Evelyn pointed out that Mary Margaret was right. He did wake up. Unfortunately, he could be in trouble.

"Mom's here. You better think of a good excuse," Evelyn said to Henry as she saw her mother in John Doe's hospital room. Regina frowned as she met Evelyn's eyes.

" What the hell are you doing here?" Regina said as she walked out of the hospital room. "I thought you two were at the arcade. Now you're both lying to me?" Regina looked ready to kill them all.

"Henry! I thought you told me mom was okay with us going to Granny's and then coming here," Evelyn said trying to save herself from getting in trouble. Henry hit her, and Regina stepped in between them as they started to fight.

"What happened to John Doe? Did someone take him?" Mary Margaret said worried at what happened to him. She ignored the bickering between the mayor's children.

"We don't know yet. His IVs were ripped out but there's no sign for sure there was a struggle," Graham said. Evelyn didn't notice he was there. Emma made googly eyes at him and the younger girl rolled her eyes.

"What did you do?" Henry said angrily to Regina. Evelyn elbowed him to get even, but also because she highly doubted that her mother kidnapped a random guy in the hospital.

"You think I had something to do with this?" Regina shouted angrily and a little sadly. "And if the two of you don't stop touching each other both of you will have to do extra chores." Evelyn knew it was an empty threat. The house was always clean, and besides for putting things away in her room occasionally, everything usually ended up in its proper place eventually. Almost like magic...

"It is curious that the Mayor is here," Emma said raising her eyebrow.

"I'm here because I'm his emergency contact. I found him on the side of the road years ago with no ID. I brought him here," Regina said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. With the way things were going, she should have just left him to die.

"Maybe we should stop fighting, so we can put all our energy into finding him! He's been in a coma for years. What if he is partially brain dead or has amnesia? I doubt just letting him roam around is going to be good for anyone," Evelyn said and sighed. Adults could be so clueless sometimes. It seemed like when Emma and her mom were in the same room, all logic flew out the window.

"Evie is right," Emma said looking at the Sheriff. "We need don't have any time to lose, so we better start looking now."

Evelyn was kind of shocked that Emma had called her Evie. Only Henry did because he couldn't pronounce her name when he was younger. Regina hated it, and tried to train him out of it when he could pronounce Evelyn. Henry never listened, and Regina finally gave up on correcting him.

"That's what we're doing. Just stay out of this, dear. And since I clearly can't keep you away from my son and my daughter, I guess I'm just going to have to keep them away from you," Regina said looking Emma up and down. The least Henry could have done was given Emma a less expensive shirt. "Enjoy my shirt, because that's all you're getting. Sheriff, find John Doe. Evelyn, Henry, we are leaving."

…

"Evelyn, I am very disappointed in you. I wanted you to watch Henry to keep him away from Miss Swan. Now the three of you are gallivanting around town and lying to me," Regina said. Fury boiled in her eyes. Evelyn looked at the ground, and Henry had ran straight to his room the second they had walked in the door. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Are you happy?" Evelyn's bright blue eyes looked straight into Regina's dark chocolate ones as she ignored the question. She sighed as her mother looked away, eyes now clouded in sadness. "Were you happy?"

For the first time, Regina looked lost for words, "I'm... I'm content."

"It might seem crazy, but this is the happiest I've been in a long time. Before Emma came, I don't know, I just felt... kind of lost. I just did the same boring stuff every day. Even if running around town with Henry isn't exactly like having real friends, I've still had more fun than I have ever had in my life," Evelyn said as her mother just stared at her. "I know that Emma isn't your favorite person, but she is intriguing."

Regina ran her hand through her hair and rage festered in her stomach. She needed to get rid of Emma before she polluted her children's minds against her even more. "I have to go back to work."

"Mom... I don't know if Henry will ever come around until Emma leaves, but you don't have to worry about me choosing anyone over you. Please stay," Evelyn said to reassure her mother. She didn't want Regina's jealousy to increase.

However, Regina knew better. If the curse broke Evelyn would run back to Mary Margaret faster than the amount of time it would take for everyone's memories to be restored, which would be instantaneous. Henry already preferred Emma over her. She blinked the angry tears out of her eyes.

Evelyn could tell that Regina was in a mood, so she went up to her and hugged her. "Maybe we could order pizza tonight and watch a movie. We could watch Harry Potter. I know you haven't seen those yet. Henry might even come down. Or maybe Snow White is a better option if you are feeling up to it."

Evelyn chuckled as she ran to the TV, not bothering to look at her mother's reaction. She put in the first Harry Potter movie and motioned for Regina to come sit with her. Regina eventually sat on the couch even though she didn't want to. She would have to hope that Sydney Glass would take care of the John Doe problem without her.

As the movie ended, Regina was confused as to why Evelyn and Henry actually liked the series. Besides for the kids using magic with sticks, she didn't understand how anyone was a fan. Harry was practically useless and he was screwed without Herminnie or whatever her name was.

"Well, time to put in the next one," Evelyn said getting up of the couch to put in the next DVD.

"There's another one?" Regina asked.

"There are seven more movies actually," Evelyn chuckled as Regina sighed and shook her head. She got up "Mom?"

"Hmm," Regina hummed as she checked her phone. Apparently they still hadn't found Prince Charming yet.

"Why do you get so mad when Henry calls you the Evil Queen?" She asked her mother hesitantly. Evelyn fidgeted with the charms on her bracelet as Regina pondered at her question. "He would probably stop if it didn't bother you so much."

As Regina was about to give her a vague answer, the doorbell rang. Instead of responding, she handed Evelyn money so she would go get the pizza.

Evelyn called up to Henry saying that dinner was ready, but he didn't respond. She set the pizza on the table and grabbed three plates from the cabinet. Henry had hardly eaten dinner with them since he obtained the fairy tale book, but she always got another plate in hopes that he would join them.

It was quite a sight to see Regina eating pizza. Evelyn was surprised she even did so at all. With a knife and fork in hand, she should have been eating a steak at a gourmet restaurant. As Regina sipped her wine Evelyn snorted. Of course, she was given a dirty look.

In that moment, Evelyn felt inferior to her mother. Not because she apparently lacked table manners, it was more than that. Regina was elegant, beautiful, and held her head higher than anyone else she had ever seen. She was always prim and proper, almost queen like, which was why Evelyn felt like her mother deserved more. Yes, she was the mayor and they lived in a luxurious house, but she knew something was missing. Regina didn't deserve to be a single mother to ungrateful children while working her butt off to run the town. She couldn't quite put her finger on what they were lacking, but the way her mother hid her emotions behind her dark eyes, made her know that she was right.

And as she stuffed as much pizza as she could into her mouth, an idea came to her. "Mom, when was the last time you actually dated someone?" Regina's knife and fork clattered on the table as she abruptly set them down. "Not like your friends with benefits thing with Graham, but like actually really dated someone?"

"Excuse me?" Essentially she hadn't 'dated' anyone since Daniel had been mercilessly murdered in front of her.

Perhaps mentioning Graham wasn't the best course of action, but she didn't know that her mother wasn't upset about that as much as she was about remembering Daniel. "Being content isn't the same thing as truly being happy, mom. Maybe you just need someone."

Regina had long since forgotten how curious Evelyn had been when she was a child in the Enchanted Forest. She had pried her way into everything, and she never had the heart to abuse her out of it like Cora had done with her. Her Storybrooke Evelyn never questioned anything, and she felt sick to her stomach that her web the dark curse had created was actually starting to unwind.

Evelyn stared at her hopefully with her pale sky blue eyes. They reminded her of riding horses in the meadow behind her father's estate with the wind in her hair and a peaceful smile on her face. Evelyn's eyes were her favorite color, and for the amount of comfort they brought, they also brought a fair share of pain.

"I already have someone," Regina told her. Evelyn's eyes widened in surprise. Was she secretly dating Graham or someone else? "Two people, you and Henry."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Evelyn sighed and put her hand on her forehead. Regina smirked as Evelyn decided not to say another word about her mother's private life.

Instead, she opted to talk about John Doe, which also probably wasn't the best topic to bring up.

"The whole John Doe thing is crazy! How does someone who has been in a coma for years just get up and no one at the hospital noticed? Mary Margaret read him that book, and now he is suddenly awake! Like magic," Evelyn said and immediately put her hand to her mouth.

The book was always a touchy subject with Regina, and Evelyn could tell that she struck a cord. She hadn't even answered the question about why she got so upset when Henry called her the Evil Queen. He probably could have made up a worse name.

"Um, maybe I should go check on Henry," Evelyn said trying to break the awkward silence. She slowly inched out of the kitchen as her mother stared off into space.

The door was closed in Henry's room, but she just decided to barge in. "Henry, we got pizza. You'll probably have to heat it up in the microwave. Henry?"

His room was an utter disaster. Clothes, shoes and trinkets were strewn about all over his floor. However, he was nowhere in sight. Evelyn ran to tell her mother as fast as she could.

Regina broke out of her daze as it sounded like a heard of elephants stampeded down the stairs.

"Mom!" Evelyn shouted as she hopped down the last few steps. "Henry's missing!"


	5. Mine Time

**... Storybrooke ...**

"Hello, Mary Margaret," Evelyn said coming up right behind her. She smiled at David Nolan, who grinned as she made Mary Margaret jump.

Every Sunday, while Henry was in therapy, she volunteered at the hospital. Usually she helped in the children's center, but when she saw that Mary Margaret was volunteering she decided to accompany her. In all the years she had been volunteering on Sundays, she had never seen Henry's teacher.

"And who might you be little lady?" David asked. He felt like he knew the girl from somewhere. Perhaps he did before the accident.

"Evelyn Mills, Princess of Storybrooke," Evelyn said and curtsied as David chuckled. She flattened her dark burgundy dress after she stood back up.

Mary Margaret smiled, picturing her in a ballgown with white flowers nestled in her raven hair. It was an odd thought. It wasn't that she ever disliked Evelyn, she just always viewed her as the mayor's daughter. As she spent more time with her, she felt almost protective of the girl. Maybe it was strange, but she also felt the same way with Emma.

"A pleasure to meet you, Princess," David said bowing his head down. He liked her already, even if she did look like the mayor. He felt uneasy around Regina even though he didn't know why.

"We were just playing hangman," Mary Margaret said handing David the notebook. "Would you like to join us?"

"Sure," Evelyn said brightly and jumped to sit on David's hospital bed. He gave her the notebook, and she frowned when she looked at the two words with few dashes.

Evelyn let out a frustrated sigh as she almost had a whole person already. David mentioned something about drawing a horse if she finished the person. When she finally came up with S_y _lue she knew what it was and penciled in the k and b.

"Probably not original, but your eyes are the exact same shade as the sky on a cloudless day," David said and Evelyn didn't think she could ever get away from the weird coincidences related to Henry's book. He took the notebook to play again.

"I can't believe there was a mine tunnel collapse. I think it happened quite suddenly," Mary Margaret said quickly to avoid an awkward silence. David nodded, but he was too busy thinking of what words he would have them guess next.

"Henry seems to think it's fate or something like that," Evelyn said. "He thinks there is something down there."

"Buried treasure?" David asked excitedly. He looked more excited than Henry did when he talked about breaking the curse.

"Something like that," Evelyn said as Kathryn walked in the room. While Kathryn was nice, she agreed with Henry; Mary Margaret and David belonged together. "It was nice to meet you, David, but I should probably be going now."

Kathryn waved at her and smiled as she hopped off the bed. Evelyn noticed that Mary Margaret was visibly uncomfortable being left with Kathryn as she walked out of the room, and she felt bad for leaving her alone. Dr. Whale handed her a cherry lolly pop, and she skipped out the front doors.

As she was thinking how irritating it was that she had to walk everywhere because her mother couldn't be bothered to pick her or Henry up, she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Evelyn said. A guilty expression graced her face, until she looked up at the person she ran into.

"Evelyn, how lovely to see you today," Mr. Gold said as his beady eyes stared her up and down. She smiled sweetly at him and took a step back.

Mother had always said to keep walking if she saw him on the street. She was not allowed to make deals with him under any circumstances. He was a shady man, but she never showed that she was uncomfortable when he talked to her. That was probably the reason why he greeted her every time when they came across each other in passing.

"The sky is a lovely shade of blue, isn't it dearie?" He said giving her a sinister smirk. He twirled his walking cane and blocked her from walking away as she tried to brush past him.

"Yes, it's lovely," she said a bit too sarcastically for his liking. He probably had a copy of Henry's book somewhere in his pawn shop. "Now if you will excuse me, I have go to my mother's office."

"I have something that I must give to the mayor. You would deliver it for me, won't you dearie?" Mr. Gold said not giving her a choice. He pulled out a flask from his pocket and held it out for her to take. She eyed it warily before holding her hand out.

"What is it?" Evelyn said as he deposited into her hand. She curiously shook the flask to see if it would help her identify the mysterious substance. The contents shimmered like liquid diamonds as it swirled around, and she gasped. In moments, it settled into liquid silver. Whatever it was, it was absolutely mesmerizing.

"It tells the truth," He said mysteriously. He grabbed her wrist as she went to shake it again. She frowned and tried to pull away. "Just a fragile decoration, dearie. Now give it to your mother like a good girl."

He let go of her and she put it in her little purse. "You owe me one."

He scowled, not thinking she would ask for something in return. He was not usually the one who owed people anything, and Evelyn was not someone he could afford to be indebted to. However, she had the same fire in her as Regina did, and he couldn't wait for her to explode when the curse broke. It was quite possible that she would beg for his help sooner or later, and he would be there when she did. He looked back at her as he turned away, "Tell Regina to cherish the blessing that she was given. Good things don't last forever."

O.o.O

She practically ran the rest of the way to Regina's office just in case Mr. Gold was following her. She wanted to know what was in the flask and why he thought her mother would want it. It was pretty, but her mother wasn't one to use trinkets as decorations.

His cryptic words lingered in her mind and she wondered what her mother had that she might lose. Was Emma going to take away Henry? She forced herself not to think about it, but deep down she was afraid. She reasoned that Emma would keep her word because that's what good people did, but was Emma truly a good person?

Henry would probably think it was some poisonous potion that their mom was going to use to kill everyone, and it make her laugh to herself as she turned the corner. She saw Henry get out of Emma's car in front of the Storybrooke Town Hall, so she walked faster. Her mother would know the meaning of Mr. Gold's words, so it was no use to worry about it before she handed her the flask.

They talked for a few minutes, and she hid behind a tree. It was too thin to cover her, but Henry didn't seem to notice that she was only a few feet behind him. Emma eventually drove away, and she practically tackled him from behind. He struggled until he realized who it was.

"I can't believe that you ditched going to therapy!" Evelyn said as she let him go and ruffled his hair. He tried to fix it, but a few strands still stuck up in odd angles.

"I don't need you to lecture me!" Henry shouted. Tears started dripping down his cheeks. He knew she was only trying to do what she thought was best, and the curse was making her act how Regina wanted her to. However, it still hurt that she couldn't believe him any more than Archie could.

Evelyn tried to hug him, but he pulled away and hiked his backpack higher on his shoulders. Henry turned away from her and started walking in the opposite direction. Evelyn sighed as she followed him.

She didn't know where he was taking her, but she figured that he shouldn't be going alone. Emma had just dropped him off, so she figured that he wasn't going to see her. At least with Emma he was safe for the time being. Henry roaming around on his own usually meant trouble.

As Henry led her to the collapsed mine tunnels, she knew she had never been more right. She started to panic as he walked past the police tape and headed for the opening.

"Henry, please stop! It's dangerous to go down there!" She shouted. Henry ignored her and turned on his flashlight. He looked back at her before running into the tunnel opening. Not knowing what else to do, she ran after him.

"I didn't think you would follow me," Henry said as he waved his flashlight around. There was nothing special about the mine at all, but he was on a mission to find evidence for Operation Cobra.

"What was I going to do? Now come on, this isn't a game. Mom is going to kill us if she knows we are down here. What if we get hurt or worse?" Evelyn tried to guilt trip him into leaving. He continued to explore. "I know it's hard, and sometimes you don't think anyone wants to listen to you, but we can look elsewhere. There are answers all over town, just not here."

Henry mumbled something that she couldn't understand. It was one thing to believe everyone was cursed, but it was another to blatantly disregard his safety in the name of fairy tales. She marched up to him as he picked up a piece of glass. By the grin on his face, she assumed that he thought it was a clue. However, his eyes went wide as rocks starting falling.

He flung himself into her arms as the ground began to shake. Evelyn tried to shield his head, but nothing hit either of them. Evelyn sighed in relief as Henry gasped. "It all makes sense, now! You're a savior!" Henry cried in excitement. He knew it all along.

"I thought Emma was the Savior," Evelyn said quietly still shaken up about what had just happened. That was what he kept saying after all.

"Yes, in this story she is, but I didn't say you were the Savior, I said you were a savior. And once a savior, always a savior," Henry said. Evelyn was confused. "I haven't exactly worked out all the details because my book doesn't go into your life too much, but you were born from true love and saved Emma when she was a baby."

"And that's why we didn't just die right now..." Evelyn supplied and he nodded. She did remember Snow White's sister was the one who put Emma into the tree. "Right."

"Henry? Henry!" A voice called. The pair of them jumped as Archie came around the corner. The match in his hand flickered and threatened to go out. "Evelyn, you're here too?"

"Are you here to help me or not?" Henry asked before Evelyn could make a sarcastic remark. Archie looked scared, and Henry figured he would try to convince him otherwise. "You don't believe me? You'll see!"

"Come on," Evelyn said as she grabbed Archie's hand. Both of them shouted Henry's name as they chased after him.

She hoped she didn't ever have to run ever again with the amount she had been doing. Maybe she would ask to borrow one of Pongo's leashes so she could restrain Henry. Even though Archie was nice, she could have picked a dozen more people who she would rather be stuck with. He was a fairly timid person for being a psychiatrist.

When they finally found Henry he was shining his flashlight down a hole. He was looking at something intently. Evelyn's heart dropped as she prayed he wouldn't fall. Archie leaned on a rock to catch his breath.

"There's something shiny down there," Henry said pointing down the hole. "Come look, Evie."

Evelyn didn't really care if there was more broken glass down there or chests full of jewels, she just wanted the both of them to get out safely. She knew she shouldn't have done it as she pulled out the flask full of the silvery liquid out of her purse. She shook it and showed Henry, "Something like this?"

"Where did you get that?" Henry said. He put his hands over it to hide it from Archie's view. Evelyn guessed it was important.

"Mr. Gold wanted me to deliver it to Mom," she whispered. Her eyes narrowed when he turned away from her. "Is it important?"

"Give it to Mom, and forget you have it. Believe me, you don't want to know what it is," Henry said as she shoved it back in her bag.

"You can't just say that. Now I want to know more. It wasn't in the book," Evelyn pointed out.

"Because I love you, there were pages I couldn't let you read. You have to remember and find out yourself," Henry said leaving her at a loss for words.

She decided that it was just for decoration and he was making up things to scare her as Archie came up to them. However, she was upset that Henry didn't trust her enough to read everything in his book.

"Henry, this is seriously dangerous. We have to get out of here. Your sister agrees with me," Archie shouted.

"It could be something! What if the answer is down there? We can't miss it!" Henry shouted. They were so close; he could feel it.

"Henry, look at me! Look at me! I'm frightened for you, Henry," He said as the tunnel started rumbling again.

"Because you think I'm crazy?" Henry raised his eyebrows.

"No! No, because we are trapped underground in an abandoned mine, Henry. And there is no way out," Archie practically shouted. Henry's eyes widened and Evelyn started to internally panic.

"Then we have to keep walking forward if we can't go back the way we came," Evelyn sighed as she marched forward. It was now Henry and Archie's turn to follow her. She didn't want to be the leader because she was terrified, but she continued on for Henry's sake.

"Evelyn, wait, do you hear that?" Archie asked and put his finger to his lips to make the quiet gesture. Ever so faintly, it sounded like a dog was barking further down the tunnel. It had to have been Pongo.

The sound of the barks lead them to an old elevator shaft. All of them laughed in delight because there was a way out. Archie ushered both the children in first. Maybe with a little bit of luck it would actually work.

Henry hit all of the buttons on the door, and none of them worked. Archie pointed to a wheel to manually raise the elevator. Evelyn groaned, but it was their only hope.

"Come on, help me," Archie said. Evelyn and Henry both grabbed the wheel to help. It slowly hoisted up as they turned it.

"We're almost there," Henry huffed. All of them were red faced and tired. Suddenly, without warning, the elevator plunged downwards. Evelyn let out a blood curdling scream until they jolted to a stop. Archie had a cut on his forehead, but for the most part all of them were fine. They still heard Pongo barking, so hope wasn't lost just yet.

"I'm really sorry. I just wanted to find proof, and I did, but I didn't need to go down here. I'm sorry I didn't listen to the both of you," Henry said and sniffed. He wasn't crying, but Evelyn felt it coming on. She put her arm around him, and he leaned his head on her shoulder.

"It's alright, Henry, I'm sorry, too. I don't think you're crazy. I just think you got a very strong mother, who's got a clear idea of a path that she wants you to be on and when you step off that she gets scared. And, it's natural, but you should be able to be free to think the things that you want to think," Archie said feeling better about himself. He wasn't going to take Regina's advice any longer if he had to hurt Henry in order to do what she wanted.

"I'm sorry that when mom bought us ice cream a few days ago I ate yours and didn't tell you," Evelyn said. Archie smiled and Henry gave her a dirty look. "I thought we were confessing. Then I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I also recorded you singing in the shower."

"Evie!" Henry shouted angrily. She shrugged her shoulders and smirked. "That's private!"

"Hey, I just thought I would lighten the mood. After all we are stuck here until further notice," She said. Her phone had no service, and it was hot down there.

Henry handed her and Archie a candy bar after the elevator had shot down the shaft again. Archie gave Henry a piece of his before slumping down and scarfing down the rest of it. Evelyn blew a piece of hair that fell out of the french twist her mother had styled and tried to look to see how far the bottom of the shaft was. Her eyes only met darkness as she nibbled on the chocolate.

"We will be fine. Emma knows we are stuck here. I'll bet that a lot of people are trying to get us out right now," Archie said. "Probably not me, but the mayor would move mountains to see the two of you safe."

Evelyn nodded, while Henry looked sullen. He thought that Regina couldn't really love him because she was the Evil Queen. It was different with his sister because it was Evie who was his mom's favorite. Evie was hers before she became the Evil Queen and still adored her when she was. Regina picked her clothes, did her hair, told her what to think, and controlled every aspect of her life. And he knew that one of the reasons Regina casted the curse was to get her daughter back from Snow White. He could never compete with that, so he didn't try.

He believed that she loved his sister on a borderline obsessive sort of way, which is why she had to adopt him. He altered the eighteen year cycle of repetition, which made it so Evelyn and anyone else who interacted with him wasn't a glorified robot. Of course they still acted how Regina had wanted them to, but they could think a bit for themselves. Now, Emma was breaking the curse, and slowly everyone was regaining their old personalities. Evie was no exception.

Archie had asked him why he wanted the curse to be real. His answer was selfish, but this simply couldn't be all there was to life. He wanted to be the grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming, so he could have a family. He wanted to be a hero.

He thought of Evelyn, who placed a mask of blankness on her face as Archie started talking about philosophical conscience stuff. His heart sank a little as he realized that she was going to get hurt in the end. However, Snow and David would take her in when the time came because they had loved her as if she was their own. They had both decided that nothing had changed during the conversation in his book that he had ripped out before she could read it. She had a lot of people who loved her, and he would make sure he was there every step of the way.

A few rocks hit the top of the elevator and a bright light broke them out of their thoughts. All of them sighed in delight as Emma came into view. "You guys okay?" Emma said dangling from the wire. She was glad Evelyn was down there, too, because then she would have had to keep running around town to find her.

"Yeah, we're fine. I'll hoist Evelyn up first and then Henry." Archie shouted. He lifted Evelyn up into Emma's arms and then did the same with Henry.

"Come on. I got ya. Okay. Okay, I got him," Emma said. She held Evelyn who held Henry with one arm and lowered the other one to Archie. Unfortunately, the elevator began to shake and there was nothing they could do.

"I'm sorry!" Emma called frantically.

"It's okay! Get the kids up safely!" He said as the elevator had begun to fall. The three of them called his name as it fell. Henry put his head in Evelyn's chest.

When they looked down he was holding onto his umbrella which was hooked onto the wire. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they were hoisted safely to the surface.

The wind was knocked out of Evelyn as they all fell to the ground. Regina had embraced her and Henry as soon as they had stood up. She caressed both of their cheeks and kissed the top of their heads while tears streamed down her face. Regina was so worried that she didn't even yell at either of them.

When Regina finally let go of them, she told Emma to seal off the area. Of course, Henry took that as an invitation to walk around the perimeter with Emma.

Evelyn watched as Archie and her mother exchanged some harsh words. By the way her mother looked furious, she could tell that he had defied her in some way. Not wanting to get involved, she walked up to Henry and Emma. They were talking about Marco and Archie before Emma said that it was probably time for the both of them to go home.

After Henry had pointed out that the crickets had come back they both walked to their mom's car together.

* * *

 **Author's note:** Don't worry flashbacks are coming within the next 2 chapters! However, if there is anything you want to happen in Storybrooke, let me know because I'm going to start deviating away from canon a bit (I really only have the past flashbacks planned out)! But I suppose the real question is what have you all occupied your time with since OUAT has ended? Please Review!


	6. One More Dance

The drive home was a quiet affair. Regina expected that the both of them would go straight to bed once they got home. She knew that punishing them would do no good. Evelyn was most likely not at fault, and Henry would only think she was evil. They were alive and safe, and that was really all she could have asked for.

She was surprised to see that Evelyn had lingered and followed her into the kitchen. Perhaps, she was hungry. "I can make you something to eat if you would like."

"No, that's ok, I just wanted to give you something," Evelyn said as she shuffled nervously closer to her.

Regina raised her eyebrow skeptically wondering what had gotten into her. Evelyn fumbled for something in her purse and held her breath as her fingers enclosed around it. Her daughter offered her hand out and gave the vial with the silvery substance to her.

"Where did you get this?" Regina demanded. Her heart started beating rapidly in her chest, as she looked into Evelyn's frightened eyes.

"Mr. Gold told me to give it to you," she stuttered. "I didn't open it. He said that good things don't last forever and that you should-"

She was cut off by Regina hugging her. Evelyn put her head on her mother's chest as her fingers combed through her hair. She didn't understand what caused the complete personality switch in her mother. The french twist was long gone as she reluctantly pulled away. Her mother was crying again.

"When I said I don't want you talking to Mr. Gold, I meant it, Evelyn," Regina said wiping a stray tear off her cheek. She could only imagine what deal he coerced her with to give her the flask in return for something he wanted. However, she felt lucky that he was giving her a reminder to take advantage of the time she still had left with her children.

"What is it?" Evelyn asked curiously. She could shake it for hours and never be bored. "He said it tells the truth."

"A gift I received many years ago," Regina smiled remembering the exact moment when one thing in her life had turned out absolutely perfect. Rumple had helped her out of pity perhaps and to make her desire for revenge grow.

"Will you ever tell me what it is?" Evelyn asked knowing Regina had gone around her question. Of course she knew it was a gift if Gold had given it to her. "If I drank it right now would it kill me?"

"Maybe one day... and no, it will not kill you, hopefully," Regina said a little uncertainly. Rumple had made the standard potion, and she didn't bother to try to recreate it, so she wasn't entirely sure. "You should be going to bed now."

When Regina finally went to bed, after Evelyn had stomped up the stairs, she closed and locked her door. She started sobbing and sank to the floor as she thought about the vial in her hand. She brought it to her lips and kissed the glass. No matter how happy it made her, from when she first found out until now, she knew it was going to drive a wedge in between her and her perfect daughter.

…

"Happy to be home, David?" Evelyn said as he walked by. She could tell he was overwhelmed with the amount of people that had showed up.

"How about I just hide with you? I don't really know anyone here," he said sheepishly. "I like your dress by the way."

"Thank you," Evelyn said smiling. Her mother had it in a box for her when she came home from school, and the rich plum color was absolutely gorgeous. "You don't think it's a bit much do you?"

"No, it's a gown fit for a princess," David said, and he truly believed it. He started feeling a little better as Henry and Emma joined them. He realized that he did know more people than he expected to.

"So, have you ever used a sword?" Henry asked as David slayed an appetizer sausage with his mighty toothpick.

"A sword? No, but I can dance, I think," he said as the classical music that had been background noise suddenly doubled in volume. He grabbed Evelyn's hand and headed for the family room.

"You think?" Evelyn shouted as he dragged her away.

Emma was about to pull Evelyn away from David, since she looked a bit distressed, but Henry held her back.

"This is the way it's supposed to be," Henry said leading them in the same direction that they went. "This might jog both their memories."

"David, I can't dance," Evelyn said as he began to lead her across the room. Somehow they were both naturals and stepped perfectly in rhythm to a complex dance that only they knew. David was a little shocked at how well the both of them were doing.

They were both oblivious to the chatter of voices cease while everyone came to watch them in awe. It wasn't every day that anyone would see two people dance as if they were at a fairy tale ball.

As the song ceased David kissed her hand, and everyone started clapping. Evelyn's cheeks turned red as she realized that they had been watching them the entire time.

"I thought you couldn't dance," David said playfully. She shook her head as she left him standing there with a smirk on his lips.

Luckily, as she walked over to Henry and Emma, the chatter had returned. No one was paying attention anymore.

"Where did that come from?" Emma asked. It was like watching Cinderella and her prince dance at a ball, in a non-romantic way of course. There was no way a kid who had never danced before would look like that on their first try.

"I-I don't know," Evelyn said breathlessly. She had no idea where that came from. It was like something had taken over her body for a little while.

"Well isn't it obvious? You did learn from the best!" Henry said. They both looked at him in confusion. He groaned. "Don't you two remember anything? Prince Charming taught Sky Blue how to dance, which means that the curse is breaking if both of you remember how to do it!"

"Maybe she was just born to do it," Emma said. Henry ignored her on purpose.

While Regina couldn't hear what the three of them were talking about, she had witnessed the whole thing between David and her daughter. If she had to keep Evelyn away from all of them that was exactly what she would do.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This was kind of a filler chapter in order to get ready for the next one (and the David part of this chapter didn't fit into any chapter, but I thought it was cute). So I already have the next chapter written... and it's the flashback you have all been waiting for (or not considering it's a plot twist). The thing is I have left a lot of open ended questions that no one has pointed out, so **if you can guess what is going to be revealed in the next chapter in a review, I will post it as soon as someone guesses correctly (within reason of course).** Also, if someone guesses it today, it will be posted tomorrow. Hint: It is something that happened in the past and it has something to do with the vial. Also, there are additional clues in chapter 5, which could help you figure it out.


	7. The Missing Pages in the Middle

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to the Guest that guessed correctly! Hope you enjoy the chapter, and please leave a review if you love it, hate it, ect.!

... **The Enchanted Forest** …

"Snow? Why are you crying?" Sky said with tears falling from her cheeks. She didn't understand why her sister was so upset and why some of the servants said they were sorry for her loss. "I'm sorry if I lost something of yours! Everyone keeps saying that they are sorry that I lost something. I don't want you to be mad at me!"

Snow chuckled through her tears as she picked Sky up. In her black mourning gown, her little sister looked so grown up. Snow wanted her to go back wearing blue, pink, and lavender; colors which made her look younger. She didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold her, and that thought made her sad. Sky was growing up too fast, and in the depths of her heart she was nervous. With her father gone, she didn't know what terms she was on with Regina. She had to believe that her sister's love would save her. She had to believe that Regina truly cared for her. If not, she would abdicate her claim on the throne to keep her family together if that's what Regina wanted.

Snow knew that she and father had gone on long trips leaving Regina and Sky at home. She didn't realize that her sister didn't have a fraction of the relationship that she had with their father until it was too late. It was quite evident that Sky didn't understand everyone's condolences because she didn't love him enough to realize the finality of his death. Snow understood of course, but it made her feel guilty for monopolizing his time.

"You didn't lose anything," Snow said as Sky wiped a tear off her cheek in an innocent gesture. The amount of love in Sky's endless eyes threatened to overflow. At that moment, she knew the kingdom would be safe in her sister's hands. "I could never be mad at you."

"I don't think I could be mad at you either," she responded.

"Sky, I want you to know that I will never stop loving you. Not for a moment," Snow said with a strange feeling that this was the last time they were going to see each other for awhile. "No matter what happens, I will always find you. Always."

Snow set her down gently as some of the guards came into the room. It was time for her daily walk in the forest to help her clear her mind.

"Can I come with you?" Sky asked Snow. Snow smiled glad to have the company.

"The Queen requests your presence your highness," one of the guards said to Sky. She frowned, and Snow was a bit disappointed.

However, Sky followed two of the guards out the door while another one trailed behind her. Snow thought it it was odd that Regina had guards send for her instead of coming down herself, but she tried not to dwell on it. It was probably nothing.

…

"Tell me, dearie, will this be the answer to your problems?" Rumplestiltskin said waving a flask full of clear liquid in Regina's face. He pulled his hand away and giggled as she tried to grab it. He smirked at her fury. "Or will it just make them worse?"

"I need to know," Regina said angrily. She threw a fireball at him, but it easily vanished with a wave of his hand. "Will it tell me the truth?"

"I can't know the whole future nor all of the past, dearie, but I can tell you that it will show you the answer. Whether it is the one you desire... just remember all magic comes with a price," Rumple said with a sinister smile and an evil glint in his eyes.

"Will it hurt her?" Regina asked as she lunged for it again. He held it above her face again, and she groaned in irritation.

"When has stealing blood ever been a pleasant experience for the victim, dearie?" Her face fell a little, and he couldn't have that. He needed her to do this because either way, he knew he would win. "It's just a little cut. All children get them at one time or another. Oh the little brat will cry of course, but you can heal it after you get a few drops, dearie."

"What if it doesn't change anything?" Regina said uncertainly. She walked to her vanity and stared at her reflection in her mirror. What if she was getting her hopes up for nothing? Regina was tired of wondering if it was his smile that graced her lips and if it was his eyes that stared lovingly back at her.

"But what if it does?" Rumple asked and set the flask next to her hand. He couldn't stand when she was being sensitive, but she was the only one that he grudgingly put up with. "Summon the brat and let's get this over with, dearie. You'll be the only one to see me."

She sat there for a few moments trying to compose her rage. She hated when Rumple told her what to do, but she had to make up her mind. At least he was hiding himself from her daughter.

Finally, Regina walked out of the room and told the nearest guard to bring her daughter to her. Rumple grinned and danced around when she returned.

"Maybe when all of this is done, you can focus on Snow White. Her heart is still beating," Rumple said to rile her up.

"I already have made arrangements for her death," Regina said rather calmly. For the first time in many years, her wretched stepdaughter wasn't on her mind.

Snow would survive the attempt. She would survive all of them, but Regina didn't need to know that. It almost made him feel bad about contributing to the ruination of her life, but just almost. He knew that she loved Snow to some degree, even if she didn't want to believe it. If he didn't keep giving Regina reminders to kill her, she might hesitate forever.

"Mummy?" Sky called out, while the guards closed the door behind her. "Were you talking to someone?"

"No, my darling," Regina said and glanced at Rumple. He giggled, and she rolled her eyes. She turned to her daughter who spun around in circles, and discretely grabbed the flask and a knife out of one of the vanity's drawers. "Come here." Sky followed Regina to the chaise lounge and climbed on her lap.

"Snow was going to let me walk with her outside. She is sad," Sky said quietly as she grabbed a fistful of red velvet from Regina's dress and rubbed it in between her fingers. "Do you think she would like it if I sang to her? She likes it when the birds sing."

"She is fine," Regina snapped. Sky didn't seem to notice her change in tone. "I need you to do something for me."

"All right," she said brightly, not knowing what was to come.

"Hold still, and it will be over in a moment," Regina said as she lifted up half of her daughter's skirt to expose one of her legs.

"What will be over?" Sky asked curiously as Regina sliced the top of her thigh with the knife. Regina felt sick as she screamed.

What Regina thought was going be a quick procedure turned out to be a nightmare. Sky cried and flailed her body around as Regina tried to restrain her long enough to get a few drops of blood in the flask. Rumple's giggling only added to the trouble. Soon she just immobilized her daughter with magic.

As the blood dripped into the flask it lit up, and Rumple took it from her hand. She healed Sky's leg and erased her memory of the past few minutes causing the child to fall asleep.

"You could have just pricked her finger. When the light goes out, it will glow silver or it will look like blood in water," Rumple drawled and set it on an end table. "It may take a few more minutes, dearie. I'm afraid I must be off."

Regina grabbed the flask as Rumple disappeared and paced around the room waiting for it to change color. If it wasn't silver, she would try to carry on like nothing happened. No matter what happened, Sky was still hers. Leopold had insisted that Sky had the same eyes as his mother, but as they settled to their true color when she was a year old, Regina didn't think so. In their endless depths they reminded her of Daniel's as unlikely as it was. Leopold's mother had been dead longer than Regina had been alive, so his memory was worse than hers, but she didn't dare give herself hope. As her daughter grew older she saw nothing of Leopold and Snow in her features.

It took her husband's death for her to gather enough courage to ask Rumple to help her. If there was a chance that she still had a piece of Daniel with her, she needed to know.

"Mummy, did I fall asleep?" Sky asked sitting up. There was no trace of a mark on her leg as she flattened the skirt of her dress down. Regina sat next to her as tears fell down her cheeks. "Mummy, are you okay?"

"Yes," Regina said scooping the tiny girl up into her lap. She stroked her raven curls with one hand and glanced at the silver substance in the other.

"Then why are you crying if you are not sad?" She asked. Regina smiled knowing that they were Daniel's eyes staring back at her.

"Because I'm closer to my happy ending," Regina answered, not expecting her to understand. Now all she had to do was kill Snow White to get revenge for her and her daughter. Snow White was the reason why Daniel never got to see his little girl and why they never had the chance to be a family. She was the reason why her daughter had such a stupid name.

The three of them could have lived in a small cottage, and she would have been happy with her perfect family and simple life. Perhaps they would have had more children to fill the house. She had always wanted a big family after she had been miserable being an only child in her father's estate. She could have grown old with Daniel and been surrounded by dozens of grandchildren, but Snow White had taken it all away.

Instead of finding love, Sky would be cursed to marry a prince. While she would make sure that her daughter would marry a man suitable for her age and would make sure he wouldn't hurt her, she couldn't guarantee that Sky would find any more happiness in him than she had with Leopold. As a future reigning queen, marriage was only made to make alliances and bring prosperity to the kingdom.

"I think it will take a long time," Sky responded. "I think a prince has to climb up a tower and save you from a dragon or maybe an evil witch. Then, you get married and live happily ever after. That's what Snow said in the story she told me last night."

Regina seethed at the mention of Snow White filling her daughter's head with fantasies of finding true love.

"Snow said a princess has to be brave, selfless, and kind. And if you can live up to all three, you can face anything. She said that you taught her that," Sky said as she hugged her mother and rubbed the velvet on her back. She didn't respond.

Regina smirked as several guards came into the room pushing a man in front of Regina. By tomorrow night Snow White wouldn't be in her daughter's life any longer. Soon the admiration would fade, and that wretched girl would no longer plague them with betrayal.

"How about you get on your riding outfit. After I'm done with him, we'll go to the stables together. How does that sound?" Regina whispered to Sky. She nodded excitedly and jumped off of her lap to get ready.

The man watched the Queen's demeanor completely change from smiles to coldness after the little girl in the black dress had left, accompanied by a few guards. He had heard stories about the Queen, but the way she interacted with the child made her seem more human than she was made out to be. He wondered if that was the little princess, Sky Blue. He also had heard quite interesting stories about a neglected princess that no one had ever seen before. Perhaps, they weren't true.

When Regina stood up, he realized the Queen was a very beautiful woman.

"Do you have a name? Or shall I just call you the Huntsman?" Regina drawled.


	8. Hidden Staircases and Magic

... **Storybrooke** …

"Evelyn, please get your shoes off my lounge," Regina said not looking up from her laptop. Evelyn sat up and swung her legs off the chair. She wondered how her mother could even see her from her desk.

"What do you even do on your laptop? The town isn't in a crisis,"

"Running a town is not an easy task," Regina sighed. She continued typing and ignored her question. The town was in the middle of the biggest crisis it had ever faced in the past 28 years.

Evelyn crossed her arms and marched straight up to Regina. She closed her laptop right as Evelyn stood in front of her. "It is absolutely infuriating that you never answer any of my questions. And then you continue to ignore me when I am standing right here!"

"Would you like to come with me to visit your grandfather?" Regina asked ignoring her outburst. Evelyn looked surprised because her mother never allowed her to intrude on that special time.

Every Wednesday she went alone to visit her father's grave, but she needed to spend more time with Evelyn before it was too late. She wondered if Snow was the one who made her daughter so needy.

"Let me grab my coat, and then we can go over to the cemetery," Regina said going into the closet. Evelyn grabbed an apple out of one of the bowls, as her mother came back with a bouquet of flowers. She followed her out the door to the car.

"Did I ever meet him?" Evelyn asked as Regina drove. The ride was too silent. "Your father, I mean."

"Yes. You two were quite inseparable," Regina said thinking of all the times where she had nearly kicked her father out for letting Evelyn do things that she had explicitly forbade. She smiled a little then remembered that Sky wouldn't have known that her grandfather had died.

"Will you ever talk about mine?" Evelyn said quietly. "My father? I know he died, but you never talk about him at all."

Regina didn't really know what to say. Talking about Daniel was very painful, and Leopold was not actually her father. She couldn't tell her too much in fear that she might find out when the curse broke.

"You have his eyes and his smile," Regina said. "And his compassion and courage."

Regina said no more on the subject, and Evelyn didn't expect her to say anything at all, so she was content with the answer. She wondered if he would have been proud of her had he been alive. However, if he had survived they would never have adopted Henry. Regina probably wouldn't have been the mayor either. Little did she know, she might have lived on a small horse farm in a far away realm, until she met the love of her life.

Regina put an arm around Evelyn's shoulder as they walked up to the mausoleum. She frowned as she noticed that the door was ajar. She hoped that she had just forgot to close it the week before.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Regina shouted as Emma and Graham came out of the crypt. They both looked shocked and guilty.

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked. She smiled at Evelyn and Regina narrowed her eyes.

"Bringing flowers to my father's grave like I do every Wednesday. What are you doing here?"

"Don't blame her. It's my fault. I wanted to look in there," Graham said. His face had turned red and feverish as he stared at Evelyn.

He walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She tried to shrug him off of her, but he only gripped her tighter. "Graham, stop. You're hurting me."

"Get your damn hands off my daughter," Regina yelled. "She has nothing to do with whatever you think is going on here."

"You're the little girl," Graham shouted ignoring them all. Evelyn started to get nervous. Emma tried to pull him off of her to no avail. "The little girl in black. The little girl who was sitting on her lap the day that she summoned me."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but let go of me!" Evelyn shouted. He broke out of his trance and stumbled backwards almost as if an invisible force pushed him away. Evelyn and Emma stared at him like he was crazy.

"You need to calm down. I'll make lasagna while you rest at home," Regina sighed and pulled his arm. Evelyn thought that that was a horrible idea considering that he needed professional help.

"Regina, I… I don't want to go home. Not with you," He protested and broke out of her grasp. Evelyn sighed in relief. Let Emma deal with him.

"Oh? But you'll go with her?" Regina asked offended. Graham looked at the ground for a few moments before facing her with a determined look in his eyes.

Evelyn knew this whole thing was going downhill really fast. Emma put her hands up in defeat.

"It has nothing to do with her. You know, I've realized that I don't feel anything, Regina. And I know now it's not me – it's you."

"So, you're leaving me for a girl who can't even bother to buy a change of clothes?" Regina said glaring at Emma. Evelyn didn't think that their relationship was even serious. Regina wouldn't have cared if it were anyone else besides for Emma.

"I'm leaving you for me," He said as a wave of clarity washed over him. He felt pity for Evelyn although he didn't know why. "And the little girl in the black dress should have done the same. Oh wait, she did."

"Mom, he's not worth it," Evelyn said and pulled her hand. Regina didn't budge or glance in her direction, but she was positively enraged at his last comment. Graham turned to Emma. "Mom, you deserve so much better if he is going to blame everything on you."

"It's over. I need to find myself, and I sure as hell can't do it with you." Graham said. Both he and Emma turned to leave, but Regina had to get the final word in.

"None of this happened until she got here," Regina shouted to Emma.

What was supposed to be a quiet evening of bonding and remembrance, turned out to be anything but a calm night. Evelyn couldn't stand when Emma and her mother were in the same area any longer.

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe the problem isn't with me, but with you? Henry came and found me. Graham kissed me. Both were miserable. Maybe you need to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why that is. Because it just so happens that Evelyn will be next, and then you will have no one."

Evelyn never knew her mother to be particularly violent- she usually wounded with words- so when Regina punched Emma, she knew the world was ending.

"Mom!" She shouted as both of them went at it. "Stop it! Stop it both of you!" Neither woman listened, and Emma pushed Regina up against the side of mausoleum after Regina had hit her again. "Graham, do something!"

He finally came to his senses as Evelyn pushed him. He ran over and pulled Emma off of Regina. Regina sank to the ground while Emma rolled out of his arms and got up as soon as she touched the floor. Both of them left without a backwards glance.

"That was unnecessary," Evelyn said as her mother got up and wiped her bloody nose with a handkerchief she pulled out of her pocket. "I don't know why you let her get to you."

"Go to the car, Evelyn," Regina said. She had important business to attend to after this revelation that Graham was remembering. "I will just pay my respects quickly, and then we can leave."

Evelyn groaned, "If I had a dollar for how many times you told me or Henry to go to the car, I would have more money than you and Mr. Gold combined."

As Evelyn started walking toward the car, the thought that Graham was the Huntsman hit her. She remembered a few of the pages before his part of the story were ripped out, and Henry hadn't given them to her. She remembered the picture of the little princess in black sitting on the Evil Queen's lap with the Huntsman watching them.

She knew he had to have talked to Henry, but something made her turn back around. There was just something wrong with the fact that her mother wanted her to leave. Considering the fact that she was invited for the sole purpose to pay her respects with Regina, she felt like her mother was up to something.

As she came up to the doors, she hesitated for a moment. She would just tell her mother that she thought she saw something scary, if she was mad.

When she opened the door her mother was not in the room. The coffin containing her grandfather's remains was pushed to the side to reveal a staircase that led underground. When Emma and Graham came out, it was perfectly centered. They had been looking for something, and whatever it was she had a feeling it was down the stairs.

Maybe she should have marched right down the stairs, but she sprinted to the car as soon as she heard the sound of footsteps on the hard stone. As much as she wanted to know what was down there, she convinced herself it was just an empty room.

When her mother finally came to the car, her cheeks were puffy from crying.

…

As the weeks went by, Evelyn couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious staircase in her family's mausoleum. She had a recurring nightmare about what she would see when she walked down the stairs. Sometimes it was a monster, but usually it was her mother surrounded by piles of dead bodies. Either way, it tore her out of her slumber and made her wake up shaking.

She almost told Henry about it on several different occasions, but she always bit her tongue at the last second. Henry couldn't keep a secret to save his life, and Emma had been recently promoted to Sheriff. Evelyn didn't need her to be snooping around in business that didn't concern her. After all, the secret staircase might lead to her mom's private place to pray, and she would never live that one down.

Evelyn already felt a little guilty for supporting Emma in her race for Sheriff. Emma did save her mom from a fire (even though it was set by Mr. Gold), but ever since the fight and Graham's death she felt like Emma was sort of like the enemy. She was taking everything away from her mom, and by default, Emma was taking everything away from her. Although she wasn't as theatrical as Regina, so she still helped Mary Margaret hang posters.

Stupid was not a word that Evelyn would ever use to describe her mom, but anyone with any bit of intelligence could see that Sidney Glass was not the best choice for Sheriff. He could barely come up with interesting news stories, let alone be held responsible for protecting the town. She thought it was funny that people were afraid of Regina to the point where they would vote for Sidney just because she wanted him to win. The town needed Emma, whether her mom liked it or not.

She also couldn't get over Graham's death, especially since it happened the night that he had left her mom. The whole thing was just so sudden. It wasn't like they were close, but he was around every so often. Once in a while, he used take her and Henry out to get milkshakes from Granny's, and it made her sad that those were her fondest memories of him. She also knew that her mother found habitual comfort in whatever their relationship was. Even though she didn't seem to care that he was dead, Evelyn knew that she was just hiding her pain.

To top it all off, Henry almost got arrested. Well, not really, but she told everyone who would listen that he was a delinquent. And maybe she shouldn't have been provoking him, but things just happened.

It all started as they were waiting for Regina to finish up some paperwork, so she could take them to dinner before Henry's therapy session.

Henry was finishing up his math homework, while she tried to juggle a few of the apples that she got from one of the various bowls in the office. Regina never looked up- even when they plopped on the floor (which was more often then they were actually in the air). It almost made her mad that her mother couldn't be bothered to see what the noise was, but the thought was gone as soon as it had appeared.

"Evie, can you please stop. I can't focus on my math homework," Henry asked as he put his pencil down and frowned at her from his chair. She sighed and put the apples back in the bowl next to her. Hopefully no one actually ate them, but they did look just as perfect as they did before they had hit the floor over a dozen times.

"What are you learning about?" Evelyn asked to make conversation. She didn't really care, but she was bored. As much as she wanted to pester her mother, she refrained.

"Long division," He said. "It's really hard."

"Do you need help?" Evelyn asked as Henry stared intently at one of the problems. He looked up at her like she was crazy.

"Thanks, but you've never done it before," Henry said trying to be as nice as possible.

"I distinctly remember having to do long division when I was in fifth grade," Evelyn said raising her eyebrow. She really wasn't in the mood for them to argue about her supposedly fake memories.

"You were never in fifth grade, Evie. You have been doing the same lessons for the past 28 years, until Emma came," he whispered when he noticed that Regina had glanced at them.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. Memories about math still haunted her, so they couldn't be fake. "I have never stolen a few candy bars either," Evelyn said smirking. Henry set down his homework and glared at her. The best part about the whole situation was that Regina would have given him money if he asked for it. Their mother wouldn't have even said anything if he took it from her purse or her room without asking.

Evelyn had launched an experiment right after the incident where she would take a ten dollar bill from her mom's wallet every day. Regina hadn't confronted her about it yet, but there was no way she wouldn't have noticed by now. She had a couple hundred dollars stashed under her bed already, and she wasn't going to give it back until her mom asked.

As Evelyn silently thought about how taking money without asking wasn't what she would normally do, something hard hit her in the middle of her forehead. And it hurt like hell.

Henry's face turned white as she lunged for him. He leapt off of the armchair just quick enough to dodge her, but the rage on her face made him panic. He was frozen in terror as she pushed him. He didn't mean to hit her directly in the head with an apple.

Regina yelled at them as she tried to break up their fight, but when Evelyn pushed him again he practically flew into the air. Evelyn looked confused because she had barely touched him. Even the first time she had pushed him, she didn't do it hard enough to knock him down. She just wanted to show him not to mess with her.

"Evelyn, what the hell were you thinking?" Regina shouted as she tried to pick Henry off the floor. He pushed her away and rolled over with a huge grin on his face- even though it did hurt when he landed.

"I barely touched him! There is no way I could have pushed him with that much force. He must have jumped or something!" She said as Henry stood up. Regina didn't seem to buy it.

"I didn't jump," Henry said. "The curse is breaking."

Regina ended up grounding both of them, but Evelyn assumed Henry was only grounded because he mentioned the curse in front of her. Luckily, Henry didn't care that she was mean to him- honestly he seemed overjoyed that she had pushed him across the room.

"So apparently back in the Enchanted Forest, I had super strength?" Evelyn whispered because they weren't allowed to talk to each other the rest of the night.

"No, better," Henry whispered. Regina looked back at them and frowned at their insubordination. "You had magic."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Specifically in the Storybrooke section, is there anything you want to see/happen within the next few chapters (not season 4 stuff for example)? I'm open to plot suggestions, even though I have enough outlined for a few more chapters. Please leave suggestions and comments in a review!


	9. Beginning of the End

... **The Enchanted Forest**...

"You mean that we get to live in a castle?" Hansel asked, his eyes full of wonder. He had always wanted to live in a palace with servants. They would never have to search for kindling all day again, only to come home to watery porridge and a cold hearth. Gretel painfully squeezed his hand in warning.

"Yes. You would have your own rooms, of course; personal carriages and valets, too. All of your dreams could come true," Regina said smiling as her daughter happily skipped into the room. Sky had been begging for someone to play with, since Snow White had left.

As much as Regina was loath to admit, she had always been fond of children. She would have filled the castle with her own if she could, but since she would never have another, these two would do quite nicely. They seemed to be loyal enough, and they would serve as the perfect companions for her daughter. Because Regina was generous to people who helped her, she would reward Hansel and Gretel with anything they desired.

Sky grabbed Hansel's hand as Gretel was about to refuse Regina's offer. Hansel pulled his other one out of his sister's grasp and smiled at the little girl as she swung his arm.

"Play with me," Sky said happily as she tugged on Hansel's hand. Gretel looked at the Queen, who had a triumphant smile on her face. It was quite evident that the little girl was the Queen's daughter.

Refusing a royal never lead to anything good, but outright rejecting Regina's offer right now could cost them their lives. Gretel hardly doubted the little princess had been denied anything before with how persistent she was. The Queen had the same look of love in her eyes as her father did when he looked at them. She knew the Queen killed for less.

Perhaps the little girl could help them run away or convince the Queen to find their father. She could beat Regina at her own game only if she decided to play. Hansel would be no help, since he had seemed to forget that they had a father. She smiled at the princess, "What would you like to play?" Hansel grinned.

Sky wasted no time and quickly lead the way to her playroom. Hansel gasped in awe. There was a wooden tree house that took up a good portion of the room. Being poor meant that all toys were made by parents and passed down. Nothing was ever in good condition. The dolls were intricately painted to look like an actual person, unlike the straw ones every girl she knew had. There was a chest filled with stuffed animals, with the softest fur she could ever touch.

Hansel had hopped onto an ornate rocking horse in the corner as Gretel still took in her surroundings. It made her sad that one child could have enough for hundreds while most worked all day with their parents to gather supplies, so they wouldn't starve or freeze to death in the night.

"Do you want to play dollies?" Sky asked forgetting about Hansel. She picked out a blonde one with blue eyes and held it up for Gretel to take. She grabbed one of the ones that looked like her. "This one looks like you."

"Yeah, it does," Gretel sighed. Most of them seemed to be in pristine condition almost as if the princess hadn't played with them at all. "My name is Gretel, and that's Hansel"

"I know. Mummy told me that I might get a sister and a brother if I was good. And I was! I didn't bother her the whole night after she came home!" She said and hugged Gretel, who stiffened. Gretel was surprised that a princess, even a child, would hug someone who was dirty and smelled of forest. "My name is Sky."

While Hansel was having a great time playing by himself, Gretel soon found out that entertaining Sky was hard work. At first she was thankful that Sky suggested that they do something else because she realized that she was getting too old for dolls. However, the little girl wanted to show her everything, so most of the time Gretel was dragged around the room.

"Mummy can fix your hair," Sky said noticing one of Gretel's braids had come undone. She pointed to her own intricately braided hair. "Mummy did mine, and look! Mine are still perfect!"

"Did she do it with magic?" Gretel asked as she rebraided it herself. She didn't think royals actually did anything for themselves let alone their children. Gretel would not ask the Queen to braid her hair under any circumstances- magic or not.

"No, silly! She did it with her hands," Sky said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Gretel wondered if the princess knew her mother could do magic.

What were only a few hours of playtime felt like an eternity for Gretel. Currently, Sky showed her the stuffed animal collection. Hansel had been in the tree house playing by himself nearly the whole time, and she was worried. Every minute that passed made her feel more trapped.

"Gretel?" Sky asked as she brushed a stuffed horse's mane. Gretel pushed her worried thoughts aside and looked at the expectant little girl. "You don't seem happy."

"My father got separated from Hansel and I, and I don't know where he is. I'm afraid that if we don't start looking soon, we will never find him," she said without lying. If Sky could convince the Queen that they needed him, they might be able to leave. However, looking at Sky's sad eyes, she knew that it would be hard for her to let them go.

"I lost Snow, but I know that I will see her again someday," Sky said as she hugged the horse. Gretel highly doubted that the princess knew what the Queen was doing in her spare time. Sky was more likely to see her sister in a coffin than see her alive in person, but she would have never said that. "Maybe Mummy will help you find your father like she is trying to find Snow."

Gretel's heart nearly skipped a beat. "Would you ask her? Perhaps tomorrow morning?"

Sky smiled, "Of course I will!"

...

As Princess Sky grew older, her brief time with Hansel and Gretel became a distant memory. Regina had started leaving the castle more often on trips to hunt Snow White or to visit her equally evil associates, and Sky felt more alone than ever.

The ten year old princess found solace in the stables and that was the place where she met her first true friend.

It was a beautiful spring morning; the birds sang as they flew through the clear skies and the open land surrounding the palace was a sea of wildflowers. Grandpa Henry had suggested it was the perfect day for her to go riding, since those were the days that Regina had loved to in her youth.

He tried all he could to make sure Sky was happy in Regina's absence because he already felt responsible for his daughter's misery. He would often disobey Regina's rules regarding Sky, so the young girl could have a little bit of freedom. While Henry knew what Regina did to people, she wasn't Cora. She loved Sky more than anything else in the world, but she was still very controlling.

Even though Sky never complained about being lonely, he could see the longing in her eyes when she saw some of the servants' children messing around outside. Regina never explicitly forbade her from playing with the peasant children, but they had all been warned to stay away from the Queen and the Princess by their parents. They would get back to work if they were old enough, and the younger ones would run back to the servant's quarters if she ever attempted to play with them.

When Sky arrived at the stables, it seemed as if all the stable boys had something better to do because none of them were there. Her saddle was much too high for her to reach by herself, and she didn't think about asking one of her guards to help her. However, she noticed a boy polishing saddles in the corner of the room, fully engrossed in his task.

"Will you get my saddle down, please?" She asked. He jumped, obviously not realizing that he wasn't alone. He set the saddle he was polishing on the wooden crate he had been sitting on and walked over to her.

"I'm not a stable boy, but which one is yours?" He said as he looked at the wall of elaborate saddles. Someone more experienced polished those, and he had been warned by some of the stable hands to never touch them. He only polished the black knights' saddles and washed the horses on occasion. He knew most of them were exclusively the Queen's. He hoped that she was allowed to use them.

Sky gave him a weird look. Didn't everyone know which one she used? It had her name on it. "The blue one."

He looked stunned for a moment, but quickly regained his composure and bowed his head. "Your highness, forgive me. I didn't realize. I would be honored to get your saddle."

He expected the princess to be a horrid, menacing little girl or an abused one; that was what all the villagers said anyway. He didn't expect her to be kind, nor did he expect her to smile at the fact that he didn't know who she was.

He looked up at the blue saddle and tried to reach it with his hands. However, that was easier said then done. The boy was only a few inches taller than Sky, and nowhere near tall enough to be able to reach it. He jumped several times, trying to knock it off of the wall, but it was no use. Sky giggled as he attempted to reach her saddle by running from the back of the room and jumping right at the end. His fingers didn't even touch it, but he did almost knock down a few of the other ones. The Queen would definitely have someone's head if he scuffed one of them.

"Perhaps if you lift me, I could get it down," Sky said as that bright idea popped into her head. The boy looked uncomfortable but he nodded and picked her up. There was no point in refusing the daughter of the Evil Queen no matter how pleasant she seemed. Her fingers just barely missed it. "Hoist me up a little higher."

He tried, but he had already lifted her up as high as he could. As Sky waited for him to lift her, a white light erupted from her palm and surrounded the saddle. She gasped as it lifted off of the rack and dropped into her hands. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and leaned too far back. The boy lost his footing and Sky fell on top of him.

"I-I'm sorry your highness. I didn't mean-" he said fearfully. Sky quickly cut him off.

"Did you see that?" Sky asked excitedly as both of them scrambled to get up. He held his hand out for her, and she grabbed it with a smile.

"See what?" He seriously thought she would order him to be punished for basically dropping her. He may have very well gotten a death sentence for it. Instead, she looked as if she couldn't possibly get any happier.

"The white light! It came out of my hands and lowered my saddle so I could reach it."

"You can do magic," He said as if it was obvious. Everyone knew the Queen was a very powerful witch, and it did tend to be genetic.

"Really? Will you teach me? I want to be able to do it all the time!" She asked excitedly. He frowned.

"I don't know how to use magic, so I'm afraid that I won't be able to help. Perhaps you should ask the Queen," He said, wondering why she didn't think of that before. Surely she had to know her mother used magic. Word had spread that the Evil Queen ripped the hearts out of half the villagers in a village near his own a few days prior.

"That is a great idea. Mother will be able to find me a teacher," Sky said mainly to herself. Every time her mother left she would often fail to attend her lessons, preferring to ride or read quietly to herself. She doubted her mother would let her learn magic of she didn't bother showing up for etiquette and history lessons. There was also the fact that people usually feared magic. "Do you think she will be frightened if I use magic? I will only use it to do good things because I heard some of the servants talking about dark magic, and I don't want to hurt anyone."

He came to a realization that she didn't know anything. The princess was completely sheltered from everything the Queen did if she didn't know about magic. An idea suddenly dawned on him, "If you don't want to ask, I might be able to find someone to teach you." He had seen a fairy pass through a few times, and he knew Snow White was friends with one. The exiled princess hid in his village every once in a while, so maybe he would ask if he ever saw her again.

"Well, Mother might not be home for a while anyway. Maybe if I excelled, she wouldn't be frightened," She rationalized because she would rather learn now than wait weeks for her mother to come home. She noticed the boy had a twisted look on his face, and it was unbecoming.

"What's your name?" She asked as she began walking to where her horse was kept. She motioned for him to follow her. "I don't think I have ever seen you before in the stables."

"I'm Dylan. My father trained the horses for the King's army, and he thought I was old enough to start working at the stables. He fell ill and passed away last year, but I still want to make him proud. In time I will become a paid stable boy, and then hopefully I can train horses, too. I live in a nearby village with my family," He said.

"You will be a great stable boy, and a wonderful horse trainer someday," She said as they came up to Nox's stall. She went inside and nuzzled the horse's nose with her cheek. He watched her in fascination.

Dylan had never met the Evil Queen, but he heard gruesome tales. It was said that she could bring a grown man to his knees just by looking at him. The princess showed no signs of evil in her soul and had the intimidation factor of a fluffy bunny. He smiled at the thought.

"Thank you, your highness," Dylan could see her smile as she quickly put the saddle on her horse with expert hands. He was amazed that she knew how to do it, and he had expected her to ask him. She grabbed the reins and started leading Nox outside.

"Sky. Call me Sky" She said looking back at him. She like the way his floppy brown hair curled at the ends and how the dirt on his face kind of looked like freckles. "I hope I will see you tomorrow."

"I'll be here," Dylan practically shouted. It took him a moment to realize that he should probably wipe the ridiculous grin off his face and get back to polishing the saddles. After all, he still had at least a hundred to go.

...

"Would you like to walk with me, Dyl?" Sky said. Dylan looked up from polishing the saddle he was occupied with. She wasn't wearing her usual light blue riding outfit. Instead, she wore a red velvet gown with black damask. It was adorned with more gemstones than he had seen in his life, and she truly looked like a princess to be feared.

"But... I'm dirty, and I haven't finished polishing," he said trying to find an excuse not to walk with her. He knew the Queen happened to be home, and he didn't think she would be too pleased to see her daughter spending time with a lowly peasant boy.

She waved her hand and all of the grime on his skin and the stains on his clothes had vanished. She grinned and held out her arm at his shocked face. "You don't get paid anyway, and I bet you have always wanted to see the interior of the palace."

"You're getting too good at magic, your highness," He said and linked his arm in hers. She playfully scowled at him for a moment before her face turned serious.

"Mother doesn't allow me to leave the palace without guards, and I haven't exactly told her about the whole magic thing, yet," she said quietly as they got to the stable doors. "Do not say anything that will get either one of us in trouble."

"I wouldn't dream of it, your highness," he said. His smile faltered slightly as the black knights all turned their heads to face him, but Sky didn't seem to pay any attention to them. The guards followed without saying a word.

It was hard to imagine that the castle had once belonged to sweet Snow White's family. The silver spires made it look more menacing than elegant, and it seemed like the perfect place to house the Evil Queen. However, the bricked pavilions looked peaceful and inviting as they walked through them.

A blanket had been laid out near an apple tree and had several different fruits, breads, and cheeses with a roasted pheasant in the center.

"This is Mother's apple tree," Sky said and grabbed a plump one off the tree handing it to Dylan. "Mother says there is no other apple that can compare the ones that grow on her honey crisp tree." He preferred green apples, but he took a bite out of it anyway.

"I asked Grandfather if he would prepare us a picnic," Sky said gracefully sitting down. Dylan sat down next, and she giggled when his stomach growled. "I hope you like it!"

"Your Grandfather cooks?" He asked stuffing his face full of bread. He was genuinely curious. The bread was warm and fluffy, and he could only imagine what the rest of it tasted like.

"No. Well, I don't know really. I suppose it doesn't mean that he can't just because I have never seen him do it. He just fetches us things sometimes," Sky looked lost in thought for a moment. She wondered what he actually did all day.

"Perhaps, I can take you to my village to meet my family sometime in the future," He said as an awkward silence settled in. The gawking servants didn't help diffuse the situation, and luckily the guards gave them some space.

"I would love to!" She said excitedly and flung her arms around him. She had always wanted to greet the towns. While it was long ago, Sky remembered that Snow and her father would take month long trips to visit their subjects, and she had always wanted to go with them. The King had always said she was too young, and Snow promised that she would be able to go soon. But then her father died, and Snow was never seen again (or so she thought). Before she forgot, she leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Thank you for finding me the Blue Fairy to help me learn magic."

It was pure luck that Dylan had run into the Blue Fairy, and he was able to explain Sky's situation to her. For reasons unknown, the fairy had agreed to set up lessons with her in secret. So far the princess' magic was improving quickly.

"Your highness," A guard grunted. Sky let go of him and looked up at the man who spoke. While the ghastly helmet covered most of his face, Dylan could see the expression of disappointment. "The Queen has sent for you."

"Tell her that I'm busy," Sky said turning back to face Dylan. She hadn't even gotten the chance to eat anything. Surely her mother could wait. Dylan stuffed more food in his mouth, and she smiled at his eagerness.

"The Queen requests your presence now, Princess," He said gruffer than before. Defiance flashed in her eyes, and she refused to look up. He pitied the girl for a moment because she looked happy with the peasant boy, but the Queen was not in a favorable mood. "The Queen does not accept disobedience, now bid your friend farewell."

Dylan got up to make the decision before her. The last thing he wanted was to get between Sky and the Evil Queen. "This was wonderful, but I should be getting back to the stables. Have a good afternoon, your highness."

Dylan walked away without looking back, and Sky reluctantly followed the guard to her mother's private dining room.

...

"The servants say that you have been spending time with a peasant boy," Regina said as she swirled her wine. Sky hadn't looked up from eating, and an evident frown graced her lips.

The servants whispered about a boy who had been playing with the princess, and she had let it go for the time being as anger over another failed attempt to capture Snow White clouded her mind. Sky could play with the stupid peasant boy for all she cared as long as her daughter didn't bother her when she was in a rage. However, one of the guards told Regina all about the boy and the little picnic Sky had been planning with him. When he told her how Sky had refused to cooperate, she knew it was time to end their innocent games.

"Do they?" Sky mumbled, and Regina ignored her sarcastic remark. Her guards had already told her everything she wanted to know about the boy.

"I expect you to look at me when I'm talking to you," Regina snapped clearly irritated. As if the rumors of her escapades with the peasant boy weren't enough, Sky's attitude was wearing Regina's patience thin. When her pouting daughter reluctantly glared up at her, Regina had to calm herself down before she did something rash. "Now tell me, who is this boy?"

"Dylan. His name is Dylan. He works in the stables, or well he sort of just helps out the stable boys to get training. He wants to work there when he is older," Sky said. She didn't realize that she had started smiling as she talked about the boy, but Regina had.

Regina noticed her eyes light up as she said his name. The name Dylan was so similar to Daniel that it made her feel sick. He wanted to be a stable boy no less. While Regina knew it wasn't love, it could grow into something more as they got older. Regina couldn't let another tragic love story happen between a princess and a stable boy that the poor girl could never possibly have.

The selfish part of Regina didn't want her daughter to find love in a man similar to Daniel because it only made her heart ache more. It ached with the pain of someone she could never have, of a father who her daughter would never know, and a secret that she wished she didn't have to keep.

"You are a princess, and you must marry a prince," Regina said masking her emotions. The other part of her wanted Sky's relationship with the peasant boy to carry on in whatever way her daughter wanted, if only just to see Daniel's smile to beam on her face everyday. "I don't want you seeing him anymore."

"He's my friend! I don't love him!" Sky said frantically standing up. The glass on the table shook as her dress bumped into it side of it. "Please, Mother."

"My decision is final," Regina snapped, and Sky started crying. She knew this was for the best.

"Please don't do this. He is the only one who listens to me!" She sobbed and sunk to the ground besides Regina's chair. "I am so lonely when you leave, and no one else will talk to me!"

"Get up, and stop with the tears," Regina said sternly. It was pathetic that her daughter acted the same way as the peasants who begged for mercy at her feet before she killed them. Regina never showed mercy.

Sky didn't listen and continued to sob on the floor. Regina stood up from her chair and towered over the poor girl. Sky looked up from her hands and cowered at the expression of disgust on her mother's face. Sky yelped as Regina roughly grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stand up.

For the first time, Sky was scared; she had never seen her mother look so enraged. The iron grip on her shoulder caused more tears to fall, but not only from the pain. Her mother had never touched her in any way that wasn't gentle and full of love. She had been slapped by the King a few times when she was younger; it hadn't been hard, but she remembered being held and nuzzling into her mother's breast as she yelled and fought with her father.

Now, her mother was the one hurting her and breaking her heart.

"As your Queen, I command you obey my decision," Regina seethed letting go of her shoulder. She hid her hand behind her back as she felt the fiery sparks of magic pulse in her palms as her anger flared to new heights.

"But you're supposed to be my mother first!" She cried. "You never put me first."

"I never put you first?" Regina laughed sinisterly at the fact that her daughter had the audacity to even think that she didn't put her above everything else. Regina treated her far better than anyone she had come across. She protected Sky's innocence, her heart, and the light within fiercely because she only wanted what was best for her daughter. She had to save and cherish the last piece of Daniel or else she would go completely mad.

"Sometimes I wonder if you even love me," Sky said as tears pooled in her eyes again. On top of her being forbidden to talk to Dylan, Regina was never home, and when she was she always seemed to have something better to do. "I know I'll never be as perfect as you, but I'm trying. I just can't take the loneliness anymore."

Regina's facial expression softened as Sky flung her arms around her. She frowned at the fact that Sky was crying on such an expensive dress, but she ignored it and stroked her cheek. Regina may have shown no mercy to children that helped harbor Snow White, but Sky made some of the worst times in her life bearable. And Regina would never admit it, but she wanted her daughter to have happiness more than she wanted it for herself. However, affection and complements would not sway her decision with the peasant.

Love was weakness. Regina had said that mantra millions of times, but it didn't stop the words that spilled truthfully from her lips. "I do love you, but my decision is final. You are forbidden from seeing that boy." Regina sighed. She couldn't stand the tears or the whining after having dealt with Snow White for eight years. "You will understand the sacrifices we have to make when you are Queen."

"Why do you keep saying that? It's almost as if you have given up on finding Snow," Sky accused. If Snow came back, she would never be Queen. She didn't want to be either, for her mother was always off on business or trying to run the kingdom. That left no time for her.

"I will find Snow White if it is the last thing I do," Regina said a bit too hysterically, and Sky frowned wondering what she meant by that. Regina noticed her mistake and sighed, trying to think of a plausible explanation besides the fact that she was going to kill her. "Snow made the choice to abdicate her throne when she ran away."

Sky rubbed the tears out of her eyes and stared at Regina, "But I don't want to be Queen."

Regina's heart clenched painfully when she looked into her daughter's big blue eyes. Snow White was the one who condemned the both of them to this life, and she wanted to scream in rage. "I don't intend to go anywhere for a long time."

"Good," Sky said and slipped her hand into Regina's. "Because I don't know what I would do without you."

Regina's anger melted when she saw Sky's tiny hint of a smile. She would annihilate every village, destroy every kingdom, and curse everyone in existence if Sky was taken away from her. Regina couldn't possibly live without the one person who helped her maintain her last shred of humanity.

Sky was the one person who never looked at her with disgust, fear, or pity. She was the only one who continued to love her even when she took away her happiness. With Sky, she could almost forget the void in her heart that threatened to consume her.

Regina needed to protect her child because who else could ever love the Evil Queen?

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I was going to delete the Hansel and Gretel part, since it didn't seem to fit anywhere, but I liked it too much. Also, you will find out why the Blue Fairy teaches Sky magic for a bit in a later chapter. Hope you liked this flashback chapter (honestly I like writing flashbacks more than Storybrooke stuff at the moment). **Let me know if you would like to see anything particular in the upcoming chapters, and please review!**


	10. Birds and Blue Ribbons

... **Storybrooke**...

"For someone who seemed ungrateful for that little video game thing, you seem to be using it a lot," Evelyn said as she came up to Henry who was sitting on a bench by the new playground. She expected him to be on the equipment, since he was so upset with the other one being torn down. Henry looked up at her and giggled. "What's so funny?"

"You're kind of like a unicorn now," he said pointing the fading purple bruise in the middle of her forehead. "Just without the horn."

Evelyn had refused to go to school on the first day it appeared, and Henry had apologized profusely after he laughed and she started crying. Regina cursed her lack of magic and tried to hide it with concealer. The make up helped, but Evelyn still cried after school because she was embarrassed even though no one seemed to notice.

"Very funny," she said rolling her eyes. No one was at the park besides for the two of them, and she thought it was odd because there were quite a bit of kids there on the opening day.

Henry set the video game down next to him on the bench and looked up at her expectantly. "Does this playground remind you of anything?"

"It's the castle from your book. Mom even said she based the design off of it,"

"You lived in that castle when you were younger," Henry pointed out with a sly smile. He hoped that a little push would help her remember.

"Maybe once upon a time," Evelyn said and chuckled, looking around the playground. It wasn't any castle that she would ever want to live in. Henry seemed more irritated than amused, and Evelyn sighed.

"I thought if you would come over here again when all the kids aren't here, you would remember something. You used to spend your time riding horses and sneaking out of the castle. You used to go into rooms that hadn't been used in years to practice magic by yourself after Blue stopped teaching you. Please just at least try to remember!" Henry nearly shouted. His green eyes pleaded with her to remember anything, and his heart sank when she looked away.

Evelyn didn't want to fight with him about the fairy tale stuff anymore because it only got them into trouble with their mom. She kicked a few woodchips before responding, "Henry, you know I can't."

"But you can! Remember when you passed out by mom's apple tree? You told me later that night that you remembered picking apples with Mom, but you imagined the tree wasn't by Town Hall. It was in a bricked pavilion right? The same one from my book!" Henry said and stood up from the bench. He didn't believe that it was his sister's imagination at all.

Evelyn had been contemplating what Henry had said in the tunnels. She read the book, and while Sky Blue wasn't mentioned all that much, she didn't have the most picturesque life as a princess. She would have the most to lose. "Henry, what if I don't want to remember?"

"Why wouldn't you? You were a hero," Henry looked up at her genuinely curious. "You gave people hope in the darkest times. You were kind and generous to everyone; Evie, you were everything that a Queen should be."

Evelyn smiled. Even though Henry wasn't actually complimenting her, she would take it. However, that didn't reassure her in the slightest. "You had to rip pages out because you thought I couldn't handle knowing the information. You let me read whatever Sky Blue already knew and the events between Snow White and the Evil Queen that could only help me understand the situation between them. By not allowing me to read those pages, it means that Sky Blue didn't know about whatever you are hiding."

"I shouldn't have said anything about it. It's not bad, well not really. In a way it's really good, but you might be upset at first. There are a lot of people who will support you and don't care anyway," Henry shrugged. He ran to the playground and started climbing up one of the ladders just to avoid any more questions on the topic. Evelyn waited for a moment, and then decided to go up after him. The metal ladder rungs chilled her hands as she climbed.

When she finally made it up to the top, Henry had disappeared under a tunnel as she pulled herself up. Instead of following him, she decided to take in the view of the forest behind the park. Evelyn rested her arms on the railing's edge as she took in the beautiful scenery. Robins circled through the trees singing a happy tune, and the trees were starting to change color as fall was setting in.

As Evelyn followed one of the robins with her eyes, it seemed to be flying toward her. She didn't realize how close it was until it landed on the railing right next to her. It had a blue ribbon in its mouth, and she wondered how she didn't notice it before. Thinking it would just fly away she reached out to grab the ribbon, hoping it wasn't lodged in the poor creatures throat or something awful like that. However, much to her surprise she took it from its mouth and examined it in her palm.

When she looked up she jumped. The playground had disappeared from under her and she was left on a dirt road in the middle of the forest. There were people in a line staring at her from the opposite end of the road.

"Henry?" She called as she was beginning to get scared. The people were slowly walking towards her, and she had no idea what was going on. She couldn't have been in one place and gotten to a different one in less than a second.

Evelyn tried to take a step back as the people came closer towards her, but her legs wouldn't move. She became frantic as she remained rooted in the same spot even though she was trying to run away. "Henry!"

She screamed and cried out for her brother as the people were only a few feet away from her. They all dangled blue ribbons in their hands and wore similar old-fashioned clothes with ratty cloaks.

A little girl waved a light blue flag with a square symbol and a crown on it. Her tangled brown hair flew in the wind as she happily offered it out to her. The child looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen her before.

She noticed that there were other children amongst the adults, but she was frozen in terror. The little girl seemingly vanished, and in her hand was the flag that she had never reached out to take. She could hear her name being shouted as the people surrounded her and waved the ribbons in her face.

"Evelyn!" She heard Henry scream. Then everything faded to darkness.

...

Regina held her daughter's hand as she sat on the side of the hospital bed and prayed that Evelyn would wake up soon. Henry had said she had fallen off of the side of the castle, but he didn't actually see her fall. Dr. Whale said that she was lucky to only have a mild concussion and a few bruises. He reassured her that she would most likely be fine, but Regina was a nervous wreck.

"I was hoping she would be up by now," Henry said coming into the room. He had been previously waiting outside the door talking to Emma and Mary Margaret. They thought it would be better for Henry to go in alone until Evelyn woke up.

Mary Margaret had been volunteering when she heard what happened and rushed to comfort the boy while Regina frantically yelled at the doctors. She suggested that maybe calling the Sheriff would be helpful, with a knowing smile. Henry dialed Emma's number anyway even though he didn't think she was actually needed. Emma drove to the hospital straight away.

"Me too," Regina responded as Henry came up to the side of the bed, thankful that Emma was allowing her privacy. She tried to pull him into a hug, but he winced and stepped closer to Evelyn's head. Regina's heart fell.

"I know you love her," Henry said quietly and tucked a piece of his sister's hair behind her ear. The Evil Queen may not be capable of loving anyone else, but she did love her daughter. "I think you should tell her the truth about her father before the curse breaks."

"Henry, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm not some Evil Queen? I have always loved you both equally, and it hurts me that you think otherwise." She said and willed herself not to cry.

Henry sighed, knowing that she purposely ignored his last statement. "I meant that you should tell her about Daniel because it's been like thirty years that Snow has been keeping that secret. You know she isn't good at keeping them."

"I don't know what you are talking about, Henry. Evelyn's father is dead, and that's all there is to it." Regina said. Her face remained blank, but internally she didn't know what to do. She didn't remember any pages in his stupid book that disclosed that information when she had rifled through it.

Yes, she had told Snow the truth about Sky after showing her Daniel's grave the day that wretched girl took a bite out of her poisoned apple. The look on Snow's face had been priceless until she had started begging for forgiveness. Regina hadn't expected Snow to look at her with anything other than contempt and betrayal. Of course Regina never expected her to wake up from the sleeping curse. She never expected that they would steal Sky away from her, but she knew Snow would never tell. Perhaps, simply out of love or the fear that her newly won kingdom would crumble at last.

Henry and Rumple were bigger problems to worry about than Snow.

Regina was broken out of her thoughts by a groan. She smiled as Evelyn blinked away confusion as she took in her surroundings. However, within a matter of seconds Evelyn shot up to a sitting position and tried to struggle off the covers.

"Evelyn, shh it's alright," Regina said trying to stop her from flailing her body. "You hit your head, and you have to stop, dear."

"Mom?" Evelyn whispered as she finally got ahold of her surroundings. Her mother was hovering over her and Henry was standing next to her bedside. "What happened to the people with the ribbons?"

"Evelyn, it's just been Henry and I in the room since Doctor Whale saw you," Regina frowned wondering what she was talking about. Her frown turned to a scowl as Emma and Mary Margaret barged into the room.

Mary Margaret had the cheery look of optimism as she beamed at Evelyn. Regina loathed it, but she wanted to curse Emma into oblivion for even thinking that she was welcome in the room.

Emma seemed to notice the tension between her and Regina so she tried to clear the air, "I'm the Sheriff, and I thought it would be a good idea to get all the facts just in case."

"What happened?" Henry asked curiously. When he noticed his sister wasn't following him, he went back to look for her. She was sprawled on the ground, but the railings on the play ground were much too high for her to slip and fall over them. Evelyn was never particularly clumsy anyway.

"The playground is gone," Evelyn said with her eyes wide. Everyone stared at her in confusion. "Where did it go?"

"It's still there, dear," Regina said. "When you were at the playground with Henry he found you on the ground. You hit your head, and you have a concussion."

"No, I didn't fall," Evelyn said confused at the situation. How did Henry find her after he and the playground disappeared?

"Did someone push you?" Emma asked. The girl clearly had fallen one way or another.

"No, there was a bird, and when I grabbed a ribbon out of it's mouth, everything disappeared. I was still in the forest, but I was standing on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. There were people surrounding me waving blue ribbons, and I couldn't move. I thought that they were going to suffocate me, but Henry saved me I think," Evelyn sighed. Henry grinned and the rest of the adults looked at her in disbelief and pity.

"You were dreaming," Emma said. Regina rolled her eyes knowing that it was obvious that Evelyn couldn't remember what happened.

When Doctor Whale came in the room Regina was about to yell at whoever it was who thought they could barge into Evelyn's room. However, the threat stayed in her mouth.

"Well, look who's up," the Doctor said and smiled. Evelyn weakly smiled back and Regina got off the bed. "Regina, I'll have you fill out some paperwork for her release."

"Don't you two have something better to do?" Regina said to Emma and Mary Margaret. She rolled her eyes as she left the room, following Dr. Whale. Emma and Mary Margaret shifted awkwardly, knowing that it was their cue to leave.

Mary Margaret went to Evelyn's side and kissed her on top of the head. Evelyn's eyes widened in surprise as they weren't as close as she was with Henry, but it seemed right. It was almost as if Mary Margaret had always done that to comfort her. "I hope you feel better," Mary Margaret whispered sweetly and lightly squeezed her shoulder with affection.

"Yeah, see ya later kids," Emma said as Mary Margaret waited for her at the door. Emma wasn't great with the whole comforting thing, and she assumed Evelyn was probably still mad at her for disrupting her perfect life.

When both of them left, Evelyn quickly turned to Henry, "Find me a piece of paper, a light blue crayon, and a black one. Quickly before Mom comes back."

Luckily Henry had a box of crayons and paper in his backpack, so he hastily grabbed them and gave it to her. Evelyn began to draw, and he was excited to know if she remembered anything.

"Have you seen this before?" Evelyn said holding up the drawing. It was the same flag that the little girl in her 'dream' was waving.

"Yes, but it's the wrong colors. The Evil Queen's flags had a white square design on a field of black, and the silver crown was flames. That one is sky blue with a black design," Henry said as he took the picture from her hands. He was wondering if he missed something in his book.

"Maybe, my mind was just playing tricks on me then. I must have been thinking about the one in the book subconsciously, and it just turned out different," Evelyn said and sighed. "It seemed so vivid though."

"No, it was a memory. Maybe you had your own sigil," he said excitedly. When the curse broke she could tell him about why she had her own flag. He was quite eager to hear what happened in her life that the book didn't mention.

When Regina came back into the room Henry shoved the piece of paper into his backpack. Regina didn't seem to notice that he was acting suspiciously.

"Are you both ready to come home?" Regina asked. Both children nodded.

Henry was more than ready to leave. After all, he had much to do before the next day.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm kind of at a road block for the Storybrooke chapters. I have a few more chapters outlined, but is there anything you would like to see Evelyn and Henry do? Anything specific at the end of S1? It kind of stinks that I can't delve into S2 stuff until a bunch of flashback chapters are written. You will find out why Blue stopped teaching her magic also.


	11. Sneaking Off

… **Storybrooke …**

Henry snuck back into the house just as he heard Evelyn and his mother having a heated discussion. When he walked into the dining room, he tried to sneak out. However, Regina noticed and glared at him while holding onto what was left of Evelyn's blue curtains.

"Henry," Regina snapped. She was clearly pissed off. "Would you like to tell me where you have been, and why you felt the need to sneak in Evelyn's room to cut up her curtains?"

Henry shrugged and turned to go walk outside, hoping his mom would follow him. It didn't take long for him to hear her heals clicking and his name being yelled as he slammed the door.

"Henry! What is the meaning of this?" She shouted. The door flung open, and she gasped. Henry had cut up the curtains and made makeshift flags of the one Evelyn had seen in her dream. Several little ones were placed in their yard and a large one had somehow gotten tied up in one of their trees.

"I've declared my alliance," Henry said as Evelyn came outside. She gave him an amused smile as he got down on his knees. "I would love to lend you my sword... or whatever knights do for Princesses."

"Arise Sir Henry, for I would be honored to accept your allegiance," Evelyn said happily as Regina rolled her eyes. She didn't really like her curtains anyway. It was nice to see Henry so cheery, even if it was over his fairytale fantasies.

Regina, however, was not happy in the slightest. Not only did she never want to see one of those flags again, but it hurt that Henry was trying to distance himself from her even further. She also had to find time to replace the curtains. "Henry, you will get rid of all these ridiculous flags, and apologize. I shouldn't let you go to the arcade for the behavior you have shown."

Henry's jaw dropped, but Evelyn came to his rescue before he made it worse. "They're just curtains, Mom. I know that what he did was uncalled for, but if you punish him, you're technically punishing me, too. I was going to go with."

Regina's expression softened as it often did when Evelyn was trying to defend Henry. Of course Evelyn had irritated her in the Enchanted Forest on some occasions, but she could only think of a handful of times that she had ever punished her. "I think you should rest today, so you don't make your concussion worse."

"I'm fine, Mom. If I start feeling weird I'll call the doctor, okay?"

"Promise me, you'll be careful. No running or doing any activity that thrashes your head around," Regina sighed and bit her lip. She didn't feel comfortable letting her daughter do anything than remain at home in bed, but she caved. Perhaps, it would help Henry come around if she was less strict. "And if you feel the slightest bit dizzy or sick, you need to call me and the hospital right way."

"I know, I will." Evelyn sighed as Regina handed her some money for both her and Henry to go to the arcade and eat. "Aren't you going to be late for work?"

"Yes, I should probably get going." Work started whenever Regina arrived in her office, but she knew she should probably head out. She hugged Evelyn, who eagerly embraced her back and tried to do the same to Henry. He shrugged her off, and she tried to remain unfazed.

Evelyn waved as she watched her mother pull out of the driveway and disappear from view as she sped away.

"You didn't have to defend me," Henry said, but he was glad she did. He really wanted to see Emma even though he now had the added problem of his sister.

"I know, but what are big sisters for? And hey you got rid of my curtains and have now supported my nonexistent reign of Storybrooke," she laughed, but her expression faltered when she noticed Henry looking glumly at his shoes.

"Evie? When the curse breaks I hope you'll still want to be my sister because things are going to change." he said a little shyly.

"Henry, why would anything change between us? I don't think I could ever stop loving my only sibling," Evelyn sighed. She really didn't want to have this conversation with him. She didn't think she could handle anymore talk about how her life was going to suck.

"I'm afraid you'll choose Mom and not us," he said. Evelyn couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You, me, Emma, David, and Mary Margaret can all be a family when the curse breaks. Mom is the Evil Queen, and she can't give you as much love as you deserve, but we can. And I can't have you turning dark on me now!"

"Oh, Henry, how could you say that?" Evelyn said as tears pricked in her eyes. Mom had given them everything they ever desired and more. She loved both of them unconditionally, and she could see the pain in her eyes after Henry rejected her. How could he not see that Regina was breaking a little more inside every single time he shrugged or pushed her away?

Henry sighed and knew that he should not have brought up that she would have to choose sides. Every time he did, she would get upset when he told her that they deserved more than the mother they got- or well at least in Evelyn's case because he was now reunited with Emma.

Luckily, Emma's yellow bug pulled up in front of their house, so he didn't have to respond. Emma stuck her head out of the window and waved, and Henry eagerly did the same with a huge grin on his face. Evelyn was furious that he lied about where he was going yet again.

"You don't have to come with. I'll be back home before Mom gets home from work," Henry said and shrugged as if he believed that she didn't have it in her to threaten him with calling Regina. He spun around without waiting for her to make a decision and practically ran to Emma's car.

Knowing that running wasn't a good idea, Evelyn walked down the lawn to Emma's car and got into the passenger seat. Emma smiled at her, but she pretended like she didn't see it.

"I was thinking that we could go to the mall," Emma said. Henry had suggested it, and since she had just gotten her paycheck, she couldn't agree more. She would have to show Evelyn the stores with practical clothing, judging from the dress and trench coat she was wearing.

Emma frowned when Evelyn continued to look out the window with a fierce stare appearing that she would rather be anywhere else. She hoped that they could set aside their differences because she wasn't sure if Evelyn would tell Regina that they were with her.

As they drove passed the center of town, little blue flags were placed in every planter. The large American flag had been taken down and replaced with the blue one. Henry giggled in the back, while Evelyn smirked. Emma was very confused as to why the flags were there, but she reasoned that it may have been a special holiday where only the people in rural Maine celebrated it. The car remained quiet until they arrived at the mall.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go to some of the clothing stores first," Emma said since she and Evelyn were in desperate need of shirts and jeans. They stopped at the directory, and Emma looked for stores that she was familiar with.

Henry pouted and whined, as he pointed to a little square labeled Enchanted Comics. "I want to go to the comic book store first!" That was what Emma had promised that they would do when they had made plans, and he didn't want to sit through the time it took for the girls to pick out clothes.

"How about you go to the comic book store, while we go shopping?" Emma suggested, and Henry's face lit up. "Then you can stay there for as long as you want. Just call me or Evelyn if you start to get bored."

"Okay, I'll see you later!" Henry called as he began running in the direction of the store. Evelyn thought it was a horrible idea that Emma was leaving him alone, but she didn't have time to protest because he was already gone. Mother would have never been so careless to go shopping while leaving Henry to his own devices at a different store.

"Look, I'm sorry," Emma admitted. For some reason, Emma didn't like seeing Evelyn wearing Regina's persistent frown on her face. When Evelyn turned around to face her she knew that she was truly guilty. "I never apologized to you about the time at the cemetery. I shouldn't have said those things I said to Regina in front of you."

Evelyn didn't know what to say. On one hand she was glad that Emma apologized, but on the other hand she didn't want to let her guard down. Emma seemed to sense her inner turmoil.

"I don't want you to feel threatened by me. I know you think that I'm going to take Henry away from you, but I'm not because I know how much it would hurt you if I even tried. Your mother and I may never settle our differences, and I don't trust her in the slightest, but I know that she only wants the best for the both of you. I just want to help Henry. I don't regret giving him up because I could never have given him a fraction of the life he has now, but I know I'm not alone anymore. Is it selfish? Probably, but he is the only family I have, and I'm not going to leave him," Emma said as she opened up to Evelyn. She blinked the tears out of her eyes trying not to cry in front of a child. Emma didn't plan to tell the girl everything that she was feeling, but it slipped out.

Evelyn put her hand on Emma's arm as Emma looked down at the floor defeated. "I'm sorry, too. Henry is my brother and my best friend. We fight all the time, but I would imagine my life being dreadfully boring if he wasn't there. What you said made me feel like you might try. It seems like ever since you got here, he constantly chooses you over the woman who raised him because of that stupid book. And I don't know why because he was such a Mommy's boy. I know you don't have anything to do with it, but it still hurts when I can see my Mom hurting inside."

"Speaking of the book, Henry said you are welcome to bunk with us when I break the curse," Emma said trying to change the subject; she didn't know what to say because she thought Regina deserved it for being a bitch all the time. Instead, Emma laughed light heartedly, and Evelyn reluctantly smiled when she realized Emma was trying to be funny. "Yeah, he has already set up room assignments in Mary Margaret's loft. Apparently it's David and Mary Margaret upstairs, Henry and I in my room, and you can have the couch bed."

"How thoughtful of him." She said sarcastically and giggled. "I would think as a princess, I would be a little bit more refined."

"Oh come on, Mary Margaret's couch is fit for a Queen," Emma joked. "Now, now come on. We need to find you some clothes that will make you never want to wear a dress again."

...

"I'm not sure Mom would approve of this," Evelyn said looking in the mirror. The pink sparkly shirt Emma had picked out was very different to anything that she had ever worn, and the black leggings were very comfortable.

Emma smiled in delight. Evelyn looked like she was thirteen, not twenty. "All the more reason to get it." She saw Evelyn frown in contemplation. "You won't be a kid forever, so have a little fun. Trust me if it was socially acceptable to wear that at my age I would."

"Okay," Evelyn smiled. She went back into the fitting room to change into her original outfit. She threw the shirt and leggings over the door, so Emma could fold them. When she finished, Emma grabbed the yes pile and headed to the register to pay for the clothes.

When Evelyn came out of the fitting room Emma had the bag waiting for her. "Thank you, but you didn't have to pay for it, Emma."

"I wanted to," Emma said and guided her out of the store. Mary Margaret insisted that she didn't have to pay rent, and she now had a fixed income. "I always wished I had a sister or a friend that I could go shopping with."

"Well, thank you for making my first mall experience special," Evelyn said as they headed to the comic book store.

"You mean, you have never been here before?" Emma asked and Evelyn shook her head in confirmation. How could she have never gone to the mall before? "But Henry has been here."

"Henry has been sneaking out of the house a lot," Evelyn sighed as her phone started vibrating.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked furrowing her eyebrow. Evelyn's face went paler than it was as she furiously texted whoever it was back.

"Mom came home early. We have to go now, Emma!"

* * *

 **... The Enchanted Forest ...**

Dylan had been relocated to the kitchens soon after Regina had forbidden their friendship to continue. After weeks of going to the stables hoping to at least see him again, she started giving up hope. Her mother had reassured her nothing had been done to him, so she was afraid that he had went back home for good. When her mother left for business, Henry may have intentionally slipped that he had been relocated to the kitchens. Sky had never been so excited in her life.

Dylan had reassured her that the job change was fine. He was apprenticing with one of the head cooks, and he actually got paid. It wasn't what he wanted, but he enjoyed making some of the easier recipes. The princess had started coming regularly to visit him. Sky would often sit on a stool and watch him knead bread for hours, telling her mother that she had been reading.

It took Regina leaving a second time, taking Henry with her, for Sky to finally convince Dylan to let her come to his village. She had practiced changing one of her extravagant dresses into something that wouldn't make her stand out several times before Dylan approved. The dress still looked a bit too expensive, but it was the best she could do with her minimal magic training and lack of knowledge of what peasants actually wore.

He had found an old cloak that had once belonged to his older sister before she married under his younger sister's bed and tied the bow around her neck. She pulled the hood up and gave him a thumbs up as they waited in line for the guards to allow them to leave out the servant's door.

Dylan tried to remain calm as the guard looked them up and down. He froze when the guard looked at Sky. If there was any recognition, the guard didn't say anything because he nodded to allow them to pass.

"We did it!" Sky whispered excitedly as they walked quickly out and headed to the forest. She was afraid that something was going to go wrong, and they were going to figure out who she was. Dylan let out the breath he had been holding in and grinned. "I can't wait to see everything!"

"It's not that great, but I'm happy that you are excited. Just remember your name is Summer and your mother is a handmaiden. No one can know who you are, alright?" Dylan asked as he led her to his village. Rumor had spread that the Evil Queen was far away, so they were safe for the day at least.

"I'm not a baby. I can remember. I just don't see what the point of lying is," Sky said as they came to a fallen tree. Dylan held his hand out for her as he climbed up the log. She smirked and hopped up without his help.

"Well, I'm sure many people would want to hold you for ransom. You're the Queen's daughter, and I'm sure that alone makes you a target. But as long as you don't slip up, no one will suspect anything," Dylan said careful to leave the evil part out.

"I don't have handmaidens, I have nannies," Sky pointed out. They would be promoted to her handmaidens when she became a lady. "And I hardly doubt that it wouldn't arouse suspicion if I was a daughter of one of the Queen's handmaidens."

"No one will know the difference whether you say nanny or handmaiden, trust me. Just don't mention anything about the Queen," he said just so if anyone brought up the subject she wouldn't know they were talking about her mother.

When they finally made it to his village, she smiled in wonder. It was a quaint little area. There was a well in the center of a large clearing where dozens of children were playing amongst the wildflowers. Tiny little cottages sprung up around the clearing every couple of yards, and she wondered which one was his.

"Come, my mother and my sister are very excited to meet you," he said and led her to the third one. She held her breath as he opened the door and beckoned her inside. She pushed her hood down as he closed the door behind her.

She was surprised that the cottage was practically one small room with a makeshift stove, a fireplace, and a table. She could see into a doorway that looked like it only contained a bed and a chest. His mother was hunched over the stove and didn't notice that they walked in.

"Is that your girlfriend?" A little girl with tangled brown hair questioned. Both of them blushed in embarrassment, and his mother looked up and smiled.

"Addy this is my friend Summer, and Summer this is my little sister Addy," He said. Sky smiled and waved at the little girl who had jumped off her stool.

"You're really pretty, Summer," Addy said cocking her head to the side. However the girl skipped away before Sky could respond.

"Hello, dear," his mother said coming up to the pair of them. She brushed a strand of graying hair out of her eyes and straightened her stained apron. As she took Sky in, she smiled at the fact that Addy was right. The girl in front of her would grow up to be a beauty. "Dylan said he was going to bring his friend over soon."

"I'm Summer," Sky said and smiled politely at the woman. His mother looked so much older than her own with her graying hair and wrinkles. She was taken aback when the woman hugged her.

His mother frowned when she pulled away. The girl's hair was a long glossy midnight black, which fell to her lower back in soft waves. She didn't know what to make of it; it was just too well kept and smelled like apples.

The woman took one of her hands in her own and examined them. Her son's friend had soft dainty fingers that probably had never scrubbed or cleaned anything. While there was no polish to indicate wealth, her nails were well manicured. Something wasn't right. "So what do you do in the palace, Summer?"

Sky froze for a few seconds because they hadn't talked about her job in the palace. She hoped that Dylan hadn't told his mother anything beyond what they had planned. Instead she tried to spin it around as his mother let go of her hand, "My mother is one of the Princess's handmaidens."

"Oh? The Princess Snow White's?" His mother asked trying to gain more information. She wondered if the girl's mother made enough money to save her child from a life of servitude. Of course she knew that Snow White was on the run, but she had rarely ever heard any mention of the younger princess. Dylan hadn't told her anything about his friend, but she was intrigued to know more about what happened in the Evil Queen's castle. She didn't notice that Summer didn't answer her question.

"No, Princess Sky Blue's," she said wondering if Snow's disappearance was common knowledge. Dylan did not like where the conversation was headed.

"Have you ever met her?"

She didn't know what to say because she was her, but she smiled, "No, but Mother says that she is very kind and brave. She says that she is very smart and likes to ride horses. I wish that I could meet her because Mother thinks she will be a great ruler someday."

The woman hummed. Everyone knew the Evil Queen was young, and she could only imagine how horrible her daughter would be. She hoped she would be dead before she had to endure another tyrannical ruler.

"Uh, well, we'll see ya later Mom!" Dylan said and grabbed Sky's hand as an awkward silence set in. He knew that his mother would never stop asking her questions. It was kind of amusing to hear Sky praising herself though. As they left the house, Dylan sighed, "That was close!"

"What was close?" Little Addy asked. Sky turned around, not realizing the little girl followed them outside. Dylan remained silent, and she gave up when her brother didn't say anything. "Come on let's go play, Summer!"

Addy lead her to the clearing by the well to go run around with the other children, and Sky happily obliged.

Sky ran around with the younger ones and laughed until her sides were sore. The children accepted her as their new friend, and she wished that she could play with them all the time. Dylan sat on the side and watched her instead of joining in.

"Let's make flower crowns!" Addy shouted and the children stopped what they were doing and all ran towards her. They all picked a bunch of the wildflowers in the taller grasses and sat down.

Sky sat by Addy and watched. She had never done it before. Once she felt capable of trying it, she got her own flowers and started twisting them together. Sky was still making her crown as all the other children got up to play tag again.

When she was done she admired her handiwork and discretely put a preserving spell on it. She didn't know how long it would last, but at least it wouldn't wither the next day. As soon as she placed the crown on her head, she heard a child start crying.

Sky rushed over to the child and noticed that the little girl had tripped and cut her knee. The cut wasn't deep or large, so she thought that she might be able to heal it enough to where the pain would stop.

"Shhh, it's alright," Sky said to sooth the crying child as she sat down and brought the girl into her lap. Thinking of her favorite lullaby she began to sing.

 _"There is a place far beyond the clouds_

 _And past the moon and sun,_

 _Over the rainbow and through your dreams_

 _Where magic horses run,_ " she sang sweetly. The little girl had stopped crying and all of the other children were gathered around her listening in awe.

 _"A place that shines with fairy dust_

 _And your wishes all come true,_

 _Horse shadows dance in color there_

 _And all their eyes are blue,"_ her palm glowed white as she waved it over the child's knee. The cut completely disappeared as the little girl waited for her to continue singing. No one noticed the magic.

 _"With enchanted hooves and silken manes,_

 _They chase the violet sky,_

 _Over pastel hills of pink and green,_

 _And yellow mountains high_ ," she sang. It wasn't just the children that she was captivating. People who had been working outside had stopped to listen to her angelic voice. A few people stood in their doorways just to listen.

 _"They say when magic horses prance,_

 _Their touch makes the flowers grow_

 _And memories last forever_

 _Where magic horses go,"_ she finished, and the children all started clapping. Sky looked around at all of their smiling faces and couldn't help but wish that visiting the village wasn't a secret. She never felt as accepted as she did at that moment.

"Sing again!" Addy cried, and all the children murmured in agreement. However, she noticed that it was mid afternoon, and she should probably start heading back home.

"Maybe next time," Dylan said. Sky had to go back home before anyone noticed she was missing. Addy and some of the other children hugged her before they left. Sky promised that she would come play and sing for them again soon. Before they left, Sky placed her flower crown on Addy's head.

"Did one of your nannies teach you that song?" Dylan asked when they were almost to the palace.

"No, my Mother used to sing it to me," Sky said. She noticed his confused look and sighed. "You know, before bed."

"Your mother used to sing to you before bed?" He said surprised. While he knew that the Evil Queen wasn't necessarily evil to Sky, he did not think she would go out of her way to take care of her in a way that even normal royals didn't do.

"Yes, and before you keep asking questions about what my nannies do for me, I'll tell you that whenever Mother is home, she usually dismisses them after they have made sure that I am dressed and bathed. She braids my hair when I ask because no one can do it as well as her. Once in a while she even comes out to watch me ride." Sky said wondering why he always seemed so confused whenever she mentioned her mother. "Doesn't your Mother spend time with you?"

"Of course she does, but my Mom is not like yours. Your mother is..." he said in a rather accusatory tone, but cut himself off before he could say anything else. His stomach dropped when Sky spun around and frowned at him.

"My Mother is what exactly?" She said and put her hands on her hips.

 _The Evil Queen_ , he wanted to say; _a murderous witch who has been lying to you; a woman who decimates villages to murder an innocent princess nearly every time she leaves the dark palace._ "A queen," he sighed instead.

"Yes, I suppose she is," Sky responded quietly. After all, she had questioned her mother weeks ago if she even loved her. Instead of dwelling on the subject, she waved her hand over her dress and it changed back into her silken black gown as the white light washed over her. "I think it would be better if I walked back alone."

"Until next time, your highness," he said smiling and slowly started walking backwards.

"Until next time," she replied and giggled when he ran into a tree. Shaking her head, she made her way down the open field in front of the castle.

...

"You're home early," Sky said when her grandfather came into her chambers. She put her book down and went to greet him. In fact, they had been home for hours after the failed attempt to help Regina find the soul mate that the Green Fairy had talked about.

Henry lifted her into the air as she went to hug him. She was much heavier than she used to be, and it made him sad that she was growing up too fast. It killed him that he didn't stand up for Regina, that he couldn't help her now. He remembered when Regina was a bright and smiley child, but now she was wasting away. She was a shell of what she once was, and it was partially his fault.

"I know you are ready for bed, but your mother is very sad right now. She needs you, Sky," he said. He had been kicked out of her chambers soon after her realization of self-loathing, but that didn't stop him from standing outside of her door hoping she would come around. He realized that the guards would most likely let Sky in, so he hurried to find the princess.

Henry escorted Sky to Regina's chambers and watched the guards grimace as they let her slip inside. It made him sad that they thought Regina would hurt her daughter, but a part of him was wary as well given the mood that Regina was in.

As the door shut behind her, Sky quietly tiptoed forward. The only illumination in the room came from the moon as all of the candles were unlit, but it was enough. She could make out the outline of her mother lying in her bed, and her heart sank when she could hear her sobbing. She carefully stepped over the broken glass strewn across the floor, and wondered why the mirror was broken in the first place as she made it to Regina's bed.

Without saying anything, Sky climbed up unto the bed and snuggled up to her mother, who tensed when Sky put her arm around her.

"It's okay, Mummy," Sky said soothingly, tying to remember what her mother did when she was sad. "Tomorrow will be better."

As Sky rubbed her back and started humming, she felt slightly more content, but how could the next day ever be better without Daniel? The pain in her heart only continued to grow as the days passed. A part of her wondered if killing Snow would actually make her happy long term, but she pushed that thought out of her mind. Of course she would be happy when Snow White was dead. She had to be.

"Do you want to talk about what is making you sad?" She asked.

As much as Regina wanted to scream to the world about how unfair her life was, her daughter would never understand. Even though she had turned into her mother, she would never emotionally abuse Sky to the point where she would allow the darkness to strangle herself. "Just stay."

"I love you, and I don't want you to be upset," Sky murmured and yawned having no intention to leave. She tried to stay awake, but her adventures had taken a toll on her. She soon drifted off to sleep, wrapped in her mother's arms.

Regina continued to hold her sweet child realizing how grown up she was becoming. For a moment, she had completely forgotten about the magic arrow that had pointed to herself and allowed herself to fall into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This chapter is dedicated to all of the people who faithfully review most chapters: , EndlessReign, and the two Guests!

The song Sky sings is a poem I found online called "Magic Horses" by Debbie Garcia-Bengochea.

 **Guest:** You'll find out how Sky came to be in the Charming's custody in a few chapters! (I've actually already written it because I like to write things when I get ideas, but you'll have to keep reading!)


	12. The Secret Vault

… **The Enchanted Forest …**

Rumplestiltskin smirked as he watched the young princess sulk at her vanity and snap at one of her servants as the woman unbraided her hair. Even from a distance, he could tell that she was Regina's just by the way she furrowed her eyebrows and pouted when things weren't going her way. Always a flare for the dramatics in that family…

Regina's child had become an interest to him ever since that fairy had granted that boy's wish for her to teach the princess light magic. A child, especially a child from the product of true love, was never supposed to be on the table in the first place, but the girl did not mess up his plans too much. However, once the Blue Fairy got involved, the future looked bleak for his plans of reuniting with his son. If he let Blue succeed in her mission to create a Savior that wasn't the future child of Snow White, everything he had been working so hard for would be lost.

It took threatening the life of another fairy to get Blue's attention because she could not deny the little Pink's calls for help. When she saw him she was prepared to fight, but instead, he wanted to offer her a deal.

"How about a deal, dearie?" He asked holding his dagger up to the Pink Fairy's throat. Blue looked visibly shaken, and it only made his grin wider. He hated fairies with all of his blackened heart. "For sparing her life, I want you to give me some information about a little princess that you've been teaching. For letting her go unharmed, I want you to stop all lessons with the girl."

Blue nodded and the fairy flew away right as he let the poor thing go. He giggled, "Why did you do it? You and I both know that you never would have helped the daughter of the Evil Queen, no matter how innocent the child is. Was it because you feel obligated to Snow White?"

"I am obligated to the realm. This child, if nurtured properly, could rid the Enchanted Forest of darkness."

"Looks like you are going to have to find a new Savior, dearie. Training children to inevitably kill their mothers... well no one said that good and evil was black and white," he said and disappeared. Every Savior needed a villain. If Sky Blue was the Savior, Regina would still be the villain.

Now he had to slowly convince the child that her mother was the Evil Queen, but first he would have some fun. It was a shame that he hadn't been invited to Regina's birthday party, but it looked like neither had the princess. He waited until the servant left the room to make himself known. Sky hadn't noticed him, even when he appeared.

Earlier, she had happily skipped to the ballroom with a small box in her hand, eagerly awaiting the Queen's party. She had spent a whole day deciding on what to get her mother, and it took her hours to complete it. When she came to the ballroom doors she was told that she wasn't allowed in. Henry had to leave the party and escort her back to her rooms after she had tried to fight the guards to get in. The box had been thrown aside as her feelings were hurt, and she had been in a bad mood ever since.

Rumplestiltskin cleared his throat and smirked when the girl jumped and turned to face him. Her mouth opened wide in shock. "If you don't close that mouth of yours, you'll catch flies, dearie."

"Wh-what are you?" Sky stuttered looking at his ghastly scales. He looked like a monster, and she was frightened. He rolled his eyes thinking about when Regina called him for the first time.

"I'm a man who wasn't invited to Regina's birthday party, and it would seem neither were you," he said as Sky's expression of terror softened into skeptical indifference. "So while we both can't indulge ourselves tonight, how about you and I have a little chat."

"I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," Sky said looking away from him. She didn't know what he could possibly want to talk about, but if he didn't leave soon, she would call the guards.

"Well you seem to talk to everyone when you sneak out of the palace with your little stable turned kitchen boy," he jeered and she looked at him with disbelief. "I've held you in my arms, and I have known your mother for her entire life. I know you have magic. I can sense it. It flows through your veins. Your little fairy hasn't been coming, and you need someone to teach you."

Sky sat there in shock. She didn't know how he knew everything about her, yet she didn't have any clue who he was. But he knew her mother, and that had to mean that he had to be a little trustworthy. "You can use magic, too?"

"Of course," he said as he engulfed the two of them in black smoke. Sky stumbled backwards, not knowing that teleportation was possible, and Rumple smirked as the child took in her surroundings. He had transported them in front of Regina's vault and opened the doors with a wave of his hand.

Rumple walked in and Sky frantically followed. She pulled on his jacket as he continued to walk forward, protesting that they couldn't be in there. Rumplestiltskin ignored her as he came to a hidden door that couldn't be seen unless a person stood in front of it and really squinted. "Lesson one," he said. "Open it."

"No. I can't. We need to leave. If Mother finds out I've been in here, she'll kill me! No one is allowed to come in here, so if you want to know what is in there so badly, I would suggest that you leave me out of it!" Sky whispered frantically almost as if Regina would hear if she talked too loudly. Rumple was almost uncertain on what Regina would do, but he thought it would be amusing nonetheless.

"I am not powerful enough to break the magic sealing it, which is why I need your help," Rumple said. The door had been locked with blood magic, so he would never be able to do it. He knew he got her when she looked overly pleased with herself, even though it was her blood, not her power that would let her open the door.

When she easily opened the door, Rumple went inside first. However, when she reluctantly followed him he let her go ahead of him. She was in awe that this room had managed to be hidden from everyone, and she wondered what was in the golden drawers that took up the entire wall. Rumple opened one and she could see the illumination of something red and glowing. However, he shut it before she could make out what was inside. As she peered around the room, the casket in the middle quickly caught her attention. Rumple grinned as she slowly made her way over to it.

She hovered over the glass and looked at the man inside. He looked like he was a prince, and she wondered why he was sleeping in the glass box hidden away from everyone. She had never seen him before, but he was rather handsome with brown hair and a peaceful smile. He had to be close in age to Snow now; perhaps, they were once friends, and he also couldn't bear that she had left without a goodbye.

"Such a tragedy," Sky heard a voice behind her say. She was too entranced at looking at the man that she had forgotten that Rumple was there. When she looked back at the man her heart sank in realization. He wasn't breathing.

"Almost as if he were sleeping," she whispered to herself as she tapped the glass, hoping that he would wake up. She hadn't noticed that Rumple had magically disappeared and left her in the room alone. Hoping it was a trick of the glass and that he was alive somehow, she began to sing because Snow had once said that singing could make everything better.

When she heard movement, she stopped singing and realized it was hopeless, "He's dead isn't he?"

…

Regina was frantic when the box containing her father had disappeared in a portal. The betrayal weighed heavily in her heart, but now she only felt guilty as she had to find a way to rescue him.

She hated the looks of fear the stupid royals she had to invite gave her when she killed the jester and one of the guards. She could take over their kingdoms with a flick of her wrist, yet she was too preoccupied with Snow to think about that. She hated her mother for killing Daniel and putting her in these tricky situations time after time. Luckily, Cora had gone back to Wonderland as well.

She stormed to her vault in order to figure out a way to bring her father back. There had to be a way that she could find some object besides a magic bean to take her to another realm. She could not afford to ask for Rumplestiltskin's help, and she was still very upset with Jefferson for giving her false hope to bring Daniel back, even though it had been years.

Ripping off her gloves, she walked into the vault on a mission, realizing that the doors had been open. The servants never went in the room, so she knew someone was deliberately trying to steal from her. She conjured a fireball in her palm and looked around the room. She let it die after she scanned the seemingly empty vault.

Sighing, she uncovered the secret stairwell with magic and began to walk down the steps. However, something out of place caught the corner of her eye. When she whipped her head around her blood ran cold as she realized what was amiss. The secret doors that lead to Daniel's final resting place were open, and no one could open that door unless they were related to her. Had her mother opened it to mutilate his body before she showed up to her party? Tears formed in her eyes as she expected to see the worst or perhaps nothing at all if her mother hid his body from her.

As she went up to the open door, she could hear singing. Quietly slipping into the room, she froze when she saw her daughter tapping on the glass of Daniel's coffin. For a moment, she could do nothing but stare as her knees went weak and she felt more pain in her chest than ever before. This wasn't how she wanted her child to meet her father for the first time. He should have been the one to hold her after her birth, not Leopold.

Regina could almost imagine him waking up and taking their little girl in his arms, whispering jokes that only his little princess was meant to hear. They were supposed to be a family, yet he was dead, and Sky didn't know who he was.

Fate was cruel.

"He's dead isn't he?" Sky asked, and Regina came to her senses. Of course Sky had expected Rumple to answer her, so she turned around expecting to face him. Instead, she was met with the enraged face of her mother.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Regina seethed blinking the tears out of her eyes. She was going to have to replace some of Sky's guards since they were incompetent at watching her.

"I-I didn't mean to," she protested as Regina grabbed her wrist and quickly lead her out of the vault and into the hallway. "I'm sorry!"

The servants and guards stopped walking and bowed their heads as the Queen practically dragged the Princess down the hall. Many of them said silent prayers for the child as word had spread that the Queen's birthday party had been an absolute disaster. They hoped the Queen would be forgiving of whatever the little girl had done.

"I really didn't mean to! It was the man who told me to do it!" Sky shouted when Regina practically shoved her into her chambers. "The one with the scales! He said he knew you!"

Regina's anger intensified as she realized that Rumplestiltskin had paid her daughter a visit and convinced her to go into her vault. Regina stood there formulating a plan on how to get back at Rumple for this, while Sky had retreated further into her room to grab the box containing her mother's present.

Regina was broken out of her thoughts when a box came flying at her. The abrupt slamming of Sky's door caused her to jump. Using magic, the box floated towards her hand and she opened it quickly. A necklace with a pendant in the shape of a horse fell into her palm, and she felt guilty. Sky had done nothing wrong. She hoped her next birthday would be better as she left to go to her chambers to mix a forgetting potion.

Several minutes later a servant entered holding a tray with an empty gold goblet and timidly said the princess was fast asleep. As Regina shooed the girl out, she sighed in relief that Sky wouldn't remember anything about meeting Rumple or Daniel in the morning.

… **Storybrooke** …

"How about I just take the bags to the loft and you can pick them up later?" Emma said as she pulled over at the street before Mifflin. Evelyn nodded gratefully as she got out of the car and smoothed down the bottom of her dress.

Henry sat there for a moment contemplating on whether or not he was going to get out of Emma's car at all. However, when Emma gave him a look of warning he sighed and opened the door. "I can't wait until we get to be a real family," he whispered, and Emma smiled weakly not wanting to encourage him.

As he made it to the sidewalk, he slipped his hand in Evelyn's and didn't look back as Emma drove away. "Evie?" Henry asked and she hummed in response. "I love you, and I'm sorry I'm making this hard on you. You don't think I'm crazy do you?"

"No, I don't think you are crazy, Henry. Creative and imaginative maybe, but not crazy." She said frowning as she saw a man with a motorcycle in front of their house. She tightened her grip on Henry's hand and quickly walked past him. Both sets of eyes were on this new man as they made it to the driveway.

August W. Booth waved at the Evil Queen's children thinking about how strange it was that he had passed Sky Blue up in age by 28 years. He grimaced at the fact that he had a crush on her back when he was a young child because now the thought was creepy. He sped away on his motorcycle as soon as the kids got in the house in order to fix Henry's storybook.

Regina saw the new man take interest in her children as she had been spying on him through her window. When she heard the front door open she immediately went to greet them. She frowned when Henry immediately ran upstairs without giving her a second glance.

"I bought you new curtains, dear," Regina said handing a bag to Evelyn who smiled when she realized there was more than one package of curtains to choose from. "I know you didn't care for your old ones much, so I thought maybe you could decide."

Her eyes were immediately drawn to a pair that was white with a light blue and silver swirling pattern, and she thought it would go perfectly with her bedding. She looked into her mother's curious eyes, and grinned even wider. New curtains weren't exactly a sentimental gift, but she couldn't remember any moment where her mother had given her a chance to choose what she wanted. Most of her belongings were just given to her, and she was expected to like them; she always did, but this new gesture was appreciated.

One thing that Regina always envied was that it didn't take much to make her daughter happy as Evelyn cheerily walked up the stairs to hang them up, which probably wasn't the best idea to try to do by herself.

While both her children were upstairs, she quickly signed their Valentine's Day cards and put chocolate and heart shaped candies into two red baskets. She wondered if they would remember what day it was tomorrow as she hid them in the storage closet. She doubted that they would stay up all night to make paper hearts and chains out of red and pink construction paper like they had in years prior.

While she didn't really care if they bought her roses and decorated, it made her angry that Henry had been given that book and seemed to hate her. She remembered that everything got better when Henry came into their lives. As he grew older, the days didn't seem as monotonous, and she suddenly didn't have to try as hard to break Evelyn out of her cursed routine. Now, she didn't know what to do.

"Evelyn, stop running, and rest. You are too old for me to have to continue reminding you that you have a concussion," Regina berated as the girl skidded to a halt. Even though the curse hadn't broken, she wasn't sure if everyone was still immune to death. "Now go sit on the couch, so you don't end up back in the hospital."

"Mom, I'm fine!" She protested.

Regina caressed her cheek and took in her too pale appearance. The bruise on her forehead was almost gone. "You don't look fine, darling. Now, go sit, and I'll make you some hot chocolate."

"You don't have to bribe me," Evelyn said as she made her way over to the couch. Regina pulled out a blanket from one of the end table drawers and handed it to her with a smile. She left to start heating the milk.

"Mom?"

"Hmm?" She hummed pulling out the box of cocoa powder from the cabinet. She added a hefty scoop of it into the milk and began stirring it with a spoon.

Evelyn waited until Regina brought the steaming mug to her before speaking. She took a small sip and smiled at the fact that her mother remembered to add the cinnamon. "It's better than Granny's."

Regina gave her a knowing smile and chuckled, "Best not let her hear you say that."

"No, I suppose not," she said smiling until her features became serious. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Regina said almost hesitantly as Evelyn patted the couch next to her in hopes she would sit down. Her smile faltered slightly as she lowered herself down to the couch.

"How old were you when you had me?" Evelyn asked quietly. She knew her mother couldn't have been much older than Emma when she had Henry.

Whatever question she thought her daughter was going to ask that wouldn't have been the one she would have guessed. The question made her think of a time where she felt trapped and miserable; when she was just the Child Queen who had given the King a spare. "Eighteen."

Evelyn noticed her mother blink the sadness out of her eyes, so she grabbed her hand. "But you were married, and I thought you loved my father."

"Oh, I did with all of my heart, and I wasn't ashamed of having a child that young," Regina said thinking of Daniel and how teen pregnancies were normal in the Enchanted Forest. "I was born into wealth and married into more. But it was still hard, and I didn't pay attention to you as much as you deserved. If I could go back, knowing the things I do now, things would be different."

"But everything turned out all right, and I'm sure Henry will come around in the end," Evelyn said grabbing her hand, wondering at which point in her life did her mother ever neglect her.

Regina, however, wasn't too sure if either of those statements were true. If only she could get rid of Emma Swan.

 **Author's Note:** Is anyone intensely missing OUAT right now? I know I am… Let me know what you think in a review.

 **Guest:** Regina will definitely freak when she sees Evelyn wearing the clothes Emma bought. However, she won't wear them for a few chapters.


	13. Notions of Evil

… **The Enchanted Forest …**

"Do you want to know a secret, Summer? Dylan and Mama don't want to talk about it." Addy leaned in and whispered into Sky's ear as they sat in the meadow braiding flowers into crowns. The little girl smiled as Sky nodded excitedly. No one really had told her a secret before; perhaps Snow did once, but the memories she had of her sister were slowly starting to fade no matter how hard she tried to hold on to them. "Okay, but you can't tell Dylan or Mama I told you."

"I promise," Sky said and put down her nearly complete crown to give the little girl her undivided attention. It was nearly time for her to go home anyway, and while the walk home with Dylan took a decent amount of time, she would hold her tongue to show she could be trusted.

Addy fiddled with a flower before looking up, "The Evil Queen almost came last night. Dylan said that sometimes she spares the little girls, and Mama was crying because I probably couldn't make it on my own. Mama said that the Gods saved us all."

"An evil queen?" Sky asked with her eyes wide. No one had ever mentioned an evil queen before, and nothing was said about this person in her history lessons.

"She's an evil witch. Some of the boys say that she rips out hearts and eats children," Addy grimaced. She hated when the older boys in the village would tell frightening tales about the Evil Queen. "She can do magic."

"But why would this evil queen do that? What does she want?" Sky also noticed the way the girl's voice lowered to a whisper when she said the witch had magic, and it made her slightly uncomfortable. She also didn't understand why her mother wasn't doing anything about this threat to their kingdom.

Addy looked at Sky as if she were crazy. Everyone knew about the Evil Queen; they did live in her kingdom after all. There wasn't a day that went by that her mama didn't scream at Dylan for accepting a position in her castle, even though there wasn't much else for a nearly twelve-year-old boy. "She's after Snow White."

"Snow White?" Sky nearly shouted. Was this the reason why her mother could never find her sister? Snow White was probably too scared to come out of hiding just in case this evil queen found her. Perhaps her mother didn't want to frighten her and that's why she never said anything after she came back without Snow every time.

"Shh," Addy shushed putting her finger to her lips as she saw Dylan head towards the pair of them. Sky's smile faltered when she realized that he failed to mention that her sister was in danger and had been for several years.

The boy didn't realize anything was amiss when he came to escort Sky home, and she didn't mention anything about Snow or the witch who was out to get her. Their walk was mostly silent like it usually was when she came to his village, and she practically left him as she ran inside the palace.

Addy never said she couldn't tell her nanny or her mother what was happening. Perhaps they would tell her more about the situation. Unfortunately, her mother wasn't home. However, she decided that bringing it up to her nanny was probably the safer option anyway. She decided to ask as the woman was brushing her hair before bed.

"Sophia?"

"Yes, princess?" She responded careful not to brush too hard as she came to a tangled strand. Sky gulped and looked nervous, which made the poor woman uneasy. Nearly every servant had gossiped about how the princess tended to disappear after her guards escorted her to the room where she had her history lessons. The tutor had claimed that she never came, yet her guards said they had seen her go into the room. It was only a matter of time before the Queen would find out.

"What do you know about the Evil Queen?" She said getting straight to the point. Sophia's hand started shaking and the hairbrush clattered to the floor, which made Sky turn around in confusion. The woman's eyes were wide. Wherever the child was going, it was somewhere where she had been hearing dangerous knowledge.

"Where did you hear that, your highness?" The woman said trying to remain calm but her voice shook anyway. She could only hope that the girl heard the term in passing, nothing more. God only knew what the Queen would do if her daughter mentioned it.

"I overheard some of the servants talking about it," she lied fearing that if anyone found out that she had been sneaking out of the castle, they would immediately notify her mother. "But she wants to hurt Snow. Is Mother doing anything about it?"

"I would think so," Sophia said in a monotone voice. "However, I would suggest that you never speak of this to anyone again."

"Why?" Sky whined wondering why everyone was so secretive and tried to brush the situation under the rug.

"Some things are best left alone, and this is one of them," Sophia said as she turned to leave the room. "Good night, Princess."

Sky frowned. The woman had not even bothered to answer her questions, and she failed to pick up her golden hairbrush that had been a gift from her mother. She made a vow that she would find the answers herself.

… **Storybrooke** …

"Do we have to buy flowers?" Henry whined as Evelyn dragged him to Mr. French's flower cart in order to pick out a dozen red roses. When Evelyn saw their Valentine's Day baskets sitting out, she knew that they had to do something for their mom. Regina had already left for work, so she got Henry up in order to help her.

"It's Valentine's Day, Henry. Don't you want Mom to feel appreciated?" She said handing the man the money as he gave her the bouquet. Now all they had to do was surprise her in her office.

"She doesn't appreciate me," he pointed out. Honestly, he wished he could be spending the day with Emma instead and surprise her at the Sheriff's station. Unfortunately, he never received an allowance and Evelyn was always entrusted with it whenever they wanted to buy something alone.

If their mother didn't appreciate him, she wouldn't have gone out of her way to make baskets of candy and give him the comic book he had been eying on a fake holiday. "You just don't want to see it so you won't."

Henry frowned. "Almost like you don't see her as the Evil Queen?"

"That's different."

"No it's not," Henry fired back and stuck out his tongue at her. She put the hand that wasn't holding the roses and bag of goodies on her hip. "You don't want to see it so you won't either."

"Mom has never done anything horrible to us. How can I see something that isn't there? Haven't you seen her face when you run to your room without bothering to say hello?" Evelyn said and Henry looked as if he was going to argue. However, she continued before he could say anything. "If unconditional love is really that evil to you, you need to get your priorities straight. Now, when we get to Mom's office you will hand her these flowers and give her a hug."

"But why?" Henry sputtered as Evelyn took his hand and started leading him down the street. Being in the middle of February, she knew the heart shaped box of chocolates wouldn't melt, but she didn't want anyone overhearing their conversation.

"Because girls like when boys give them flowers, and who better to give Mom flowers than her ungrateful little boy?" Evelyn responded indifferently as Henry roughly grabbed the bouquet out of her hands. She was going to scold him, but all of the flowers remained intact.

Henry pouted all the way to Town Hall, only stopping when Evelyn told him that she was never going to cover for him when he snuck off with Emma if he didn't smile and follow through with her plans. While Evelyn talked to the receptionist, he wanted to roll his eyes at her over enthusiastic behavior. It wasn't like the woman wasn't going to let them go to their mom's office.

When the woman called Regina to say that she had some visitors Evelyn practically ran up the stairs while Henry took his sweet time. She wasn't amused when he finally made it up.

"If you ruin this, I will personally stalk you and call mom when I see you with Emma," she threatened, and he knew that she wasn't joking. He would pretend, just like his mom did, only to appease his sister. "Now smile."

Evelyn opened the door and saw her mother furiously typing something on her laptop. She motioned for Henry to be quiet, and they tiptoed into the room. Regina didn't notice that they came in.

Evelyn quietly counted to three. "Happy Valentine's day, Mom!" They said in unison, although Henry didn't seem as into it. However, he plastered a smile on his face, so she couldn't really complain.

Regina looked up in shock, until a pleasant smile graced her lips. She didn't expect anything from them, and the thought that her children remembered made her feel hopeful.

Henry awkwardly walked behind the desk and handed her the bouquet of roses with a goofy smile, and she nearly cried when he wrapped his arms around her. He would never admit it, but he secretly liked it, too. When he pulled away she blinked away her tears, and smiled at his appearance. He was wearing a red button up shirt under his black jacket and striped scarf, and she couldn't believe how grown up he looked. Evelyn was wearing a red dress, and she wondered if she had picked out Henry's clothes to match hers.

"I was thinking that we could go to Granny's Valentine's Day dinner tonight if you weren't too busy," Evelyn said trying not to ruin the moment between her mom and Henry. She set the box of chocolate and a cheesy card on Regina's desk, and Henry went to go sit on one of the armchairs.

Regina hesitated for a second because she did have a lot of things to do, but she decided to concede. There was only so much time that she had left to spend with her children if she couldn't get rid of Emma Swan. She would have rather cooked dinner for them, but even Henry looked like he wanted to go. "Let me just finish up a few things here."

As Regina finished with her paperwork, Evelyn smiled at the picture of her and Henry on her mother's desk. It was taken before he had found out he was adopted back when the Mills house was always full of happiness and laughter. She remembered that after a long day walking around the pier, they made cookies that evening, and Henry got the flour all over. Regina playfully scolded him, but never once looked like she was mad. In fact her mother had laughed as she swept up the flour and her and Henry scrubbed the floors with rags.

Evelyn wouldn't have believed that her mother- the always prim and polished mayor- had once used to put on pajamas as soon as she came home from work to crawl through pillow forts and indulge in her children's fantasies if she hadn't lived it. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

While Regina went to go grab her coat from the closet, Evelyn walked over to round up Henry.

"Haven't you ever noticed that Mom doesn't have any pictures of us together when I was little?" Henry asked innocently when he noticed she was looking at the picture of them. Evelyn knew he was trying to get a rise out of her after she had blackmailed him. "She doesn't have any pictures of you when you were little either."

Of course that couldn't be true. She remembered what she looked like as a child, which wouldn't have been possible had she not seen photos of herself. "Mom probably updates them a lot," she responded with a smirk. That wasn't an unreasonable assumption. Perhaps, they just couldn't sit still long enough for her to ever take any.

"Or she doesn't have any," Henry said rather loudly.

"Who doesn't have what?" Regina asked with a frown as she came up behind him. Instead of responding, Henry shrugged his shoulders and walked to the door with his head down.

Regina sighed as she felt Evelyn's hand slip into hers. It did nothing to bring her any relief, since she had most certainly heard Henry's accusations.

As she drove to Granny's, she became lost in thought. She did in fact have many pictures of them hidden in her vault. A few days after arriving in Storybrooke, she discovered what a camera was and constantly took pictures of Evelyn. There were only a handful worth keeping, but at the time, she felt like she had to make up for forgetting many important moments in her daughter's life due to the lack of photography in the Enchanted Forest. Once she got better at it, she didn't need to take as many pictures- however, that changed when they got Henry. While she did have many of Henry by himself as a child, there were just as many with Evelyn in them looking no older than the first time Regina had ever taken a picture of her. Evelyn would never notice, but she kept them safely hidden from Henry, since she hoped that one day he would surpass his sister in age. She would have to explain all questions to him later.

It was only a few years back when she finally went through all of the thick volumes in her shelf of books and found several photo albums- all of which had chronicled Evelyn's life as Sky Blue from birth to when the curse hit. It was the best gift that anyone could have given her, even though all the pictures of her daughter with Snow made her want to gag, and all of them after Evelyn's abduction made her want to scream and curse the wretched princess all over again. Of course they all had gone directly to her vault because she couldn't possibly come up with a lie to encompass all of the photos had Evelyn or Henry stumbled upon the albums. It's not like she could very well explain why there was a picture of Henry's teacher with long hair and even worse: a very distraught Evelyn clinging to Charming's bloody comatose body.

Granny's of course was nearly filled. Every surface was covered with red and pink plastic tablecloths and large hearts hung from the ceiling. Regina had thought it looked quite cheesy, almost as if her children would have decorated, and she would have rather came a different day. The only thing different on the menu was a very large chocolate fountain had been set up in the middle of the room with various fruits and treats to dip, and Regina certainly would not touch it. But both Evelyn and Henry stared at it with longing eyes.

"After dinner," Regina said leading them to an empty booth, but of course that was easier said than done. After Ruby took their orders, both children still eyed the fountain. If Regina had her way, they would not be touching that germ infested thing nor consuming any more sugar than they needed to. However, she noticed that other families were letting their children go up as they waited for their food. "All right, both of you can go up to the chocolate fountain now while we wait, but you both better save room for your actual dinner." Both children grinned and took off faster than Regina could berate them for running.

Henry opted to dip a rice crispy square in the fondue, while Evelyn decided to go for the strawberries first. Neither one of them had ever experienced something quite so wonderful, so they both got a bit carried away. Henry had chocolate all over his face, but still kept putting one thing after another on his skewer. Evelyn decided to go back to the table after she started getting full so she would be able eat some of her actual dinner.

Instead she spotted David sitting glumly by himself at a table and decided that he looked like he could use some company. She hadn't seen him since his party.

"Hello David," she said and sat down on the empty chair, hoping she wasn't intruding.

He looked up and smiled at her. "Aren't you a little young to be here on a date?"

"I'm not on a date! I came here with my Mom and Henry. Where's your date?" She asked as he awkwardly looked at the two Valentine's Day cards on the table that she hadn't noticed were there. One envelope had Mary Margaret written on it and the other had Kathryn. She felt bad for saying anything.

"It's complicated," he sighed as he tried not to think about giving Mary Margaret the wrong card. The look on her face had been enough to crush his hopes of some day having a relationship withe her, never mind what she said to him after. He didn't want to explain it to a twelve year old anyway.

"But it doesn't have to be. You just have to tell the truth because even though you are trying to make sure no one gets hurt, it's really hurting all three of you."

"You're right," David said meeting her eyes with a sad smile, feeling a strange urge to embrace her. "But it doesn't make it any easier. Someone will still get hurt."

"It won't hurt forever," Evelyn responded quietly wondering why she chose to use those words. When she looked back at David, he also seemed a bit dazed.

"No, I suppose it won't," David murmured suddenly thinking about someone resembling Mary Margaret holding a very distraught child. He shook his head to try to clear his mind, wondering why he had envisioned that.

"Well, I should probably go back to sit with my Mom before our food gets here," she said awkwardly standing up. She pushed in the chair and waved before leaving. It took all of his willpower to not protest.

While Regina had been great to him and Kathryn, a feeling of unease boiled in the pit of his stomach as he watched Evelyn slide into the booth across from her. The Mayor's smile didn't seem genuine, and for a second he thought she was glaring at him instead of paying attention to whatever Evelyn was saying. However, he must have just been paranoid.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving tomorrow! Eat lots of turkey!


	14. Mad Hatter

... **The Enchanted Forest**...

Sky waited patiently waited until the guards that accompanied her to the room where she typically had piano lessons in had left. Weeks previously she had told them that her mother had scheduled piano first. Even though it was a lie, they had no reason to doubt her. She would then leave the room after transforming her dress into peasant's attire. Everyone she passed must have mistaken her for another servant's child because no one seemed to pay her any attention.

As her silk black gown started to change into roughly spun brown cotton, the magic faded away as she was startled by an impish voice. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Dearie," Rumplestiltskin giggled.

"What are you?" Sky asked timidly while Rumple rolled his eyes. Apparently Regina had found out about his little visit and gave her a forgetting potion.

"Rumplestiltskin at your service," he said as he ignored her question. He didn't have time for more formalities than that and saying he was just a man was becoming quite irritating. "Now where do you think you're going?"

"It's none of your business. Now if you leave and don't mention my whereabouts, I won't call for the guards," she said. He was not expecting her to respond in such a bratty manner. With a snap of Rumple's fingers, it changed back to black silk. Her eyes widened in shock as he smirked.

"Yes, yes, I can do magic, too. And I happen to know that your mother will be back before you will be home from your little villiage excursion with the kitchen boy," he said as he could see the gears turning in her head. "I know everything that your little heart desires."

"I don't believe you."

"Princess Sky Blue born to Queen Regina and... well it doesn't really matter, does it?" He said mostly speaking to himself. He wondered if Regina told her about Daniel, but her unchanged expression reinforced that the girl was none the wiser about who her father actually was. "I can show you anyone you want to see, anything you aren't supposed to know. Perhaps a person?"

"Everyone in the kingdom knows who I am. Do you know who the evil queen is?" Sky asked doubting his abilities.

"Why, of course," he jumped excitedly and clapped his hands together. It was almost too easy. "I can show you, for a price."

"Mother controls the gold," Sky responded sadly. She did want to give up any of her dresses or jewelry because all of it had been gifts at one time or another.

"I don't want gold, silly child. I want you to never mention I was here, deal?"

"Deal," Sky said quickly, fearing that he would change his mind. She wasn't going to tell anyone about meeting him anyway, so the bargain was almost too good to be true.

"This should do the trick," he said as a mirror appeared in his hand. Sky watched in awe as magic swirled around and began to create an image of the infamous evil queen. She reached out for the mirror, but he swatted her hands away. She pouted, but he ignored her. Instead he waited and giggled when Regina appeared in the mirror looking regal and lethal as ever as she rode back to the palace in her carriage.

Sky nearly ripped it out of his hands when he held it out to her, but as she gazed at the image, she was confused. "This isn't the evil queen, this is Mother. I think you made a mistake."

"Rumplestiltskin makes no mistakes," he bellowed with a sinister smile. "You asked me to show you the Evil Queen, and I upheld my end of the bargain."

"That's a lie. I wanted to know who this person terrorizing Snow and the villagers is, and you showed me a picture of Mother," She pointed out with her hands on her hips. The more his grin grew, the angrier she became. "Do you really think I would believe that my Mother is hunting my sister and killing people?"

"You said it, not me," he said turning his back to her. She shouted at him to tell her who it actually was, and he just grinned knowing that everything was slowly falling into place. "You don't get to leave!" She screamed as smoke swirled around him as he got ready to poof to the Dark Castle.

When the smoke dissipated, he had arrived in his dining room to see Belle polishing some of the silverware. She smiled at him, but something was wrong. Instead of saying anything degrading, he staggered to the table for something to hold onto as he began to have a vision of the future.

"Rumple?" He heard Belle's airy voice ring out as he regained his senses. He was lying on the floor and his head was cradled in her lap. She protested when he suddenly got up, but he was too enraged to listen. The windows shattered as he processed what he had seen. Belle squealed when he threw the dining room table into the wall with his magic and it splintered in half with a loud crack.

By showing the damn princess who Regina was slightly too late, he had unintentionally created the Savior who wasn't the daughter of Snow White and Prince David. Unless he figured out a way to remedy his mistake soon, his plans would go to ruins. There could only be one Savior, and Sky Blue would not be one for much longer.

* * *

 **... Storybrooke ...**

Emma had found Henry's book and had given it back to him, much to Evelyn's dismay. He would point out new characters, which annoyed her to no end. His recent find was Little Red Riding Hood. After receiving a grilled cheese sandwich from Ruby, he quickly decided that the character in question was her.

"I thought her Grandmother was eaten by the wolf," Evelyn said dipping a fry in ketchup before stuffing it in her mouth. Sarcasm wasn't her best quality, but enough was enough. Granny was clearly working the counter, and Ruby definitely wasn't stupid enough to talk to a wolf and stray off the path to her grandmother's house.

"Not in this story. Red was the wolf and the red cloak prevented her from turning into one," Henry said looking at the missing poster with Kathryn's picture on the front. "I thought you read the whole book."

And that was the last memory Henry had of Evelyn before she disappeared as well. She never came home from school the next day, and he broke down after his mother had asked where she had gone.

Mary Margaret's trial was put to a halt as Emma's new priority was to find the Mayor's daughter. Regina was beside herself with worry and threatened to fire Emma if she didn't put Evelyn first. While Emma didn't think anything happened to the girl, she had already promised a tearful Henry that she would find his sister.

Regina never noticed Mary Margaret's disappearance from her jail cell as she was too busy trying to find her daughter. Going to Gold proved to be fruitless as he cryptically told her that he would help Evelyn only when the time came for her to need his assistance. She would have to hope Emma would locate her, or she would come home by herself.

Emma was trying to hit two birds with one stone by trying to find the both of them at the same time. Everyone disliked Mary Margaret for being a home wrecker and no one disliked Evelyn, so she pretty much had no leads for either of them. She put her hand on her forehead as she drove, only to almost hit a man with her car.

He graciously accepted her invitation to drive him home after she noticed his obvious limp. And without knowing it, she had found her lead.

...

Evelyn had offered to help a nice man named Jefferson carry his groceries home, since he had an obvious limp. He thanked her as she set some of the bags on his kitchen table and insisted on making tea. She graciously accepted the cup of tea that he had made for her and soon fell asleep on his couch after taking a few sips.

She woke up tied to a chair and Jefferson sitting across from her. They were in a room filled with different colored top hats "What's going on?" Evelyn asked as he stared at her. She was getting a little bit scared and thought he must be some sort of psychopath.

"I need you to do something for me." He said and came over to her to untie the ropes around her wrists. He knew she had magic in the Enchanted Forest, and he was desperate to be reunited with his Grace.

"What makes me think I would do anything for you, now that you've kidnapped me?" Her eyes narrowed wondering what he could possibly want.

"Oh you will. I've got your sister, she goes by Mary Margaret in this world, in the other room. As much as I am loath to help the Queen out, I will kill her if you refuse," Jefferson said grabbing her chin to face him.

"Mary Margaret? She's in jail, and she is not my sister either," Evelyn said and tried to squirm away from him. He rolled his eyes and sighed. Apparently her little brother didn't do a great job of convincing her of who she really was.

"Maybe not, but she is Snow White and you're Sky Blue," Jefferson said as he pulled the ropes to force her to stand up. "And think of how sorry you'll be when you finally wake up if you let her die."

She didn't say a word as he dragged her into his sewing room. Of course she would be upset if Mary Margaret died, but they weren't characters in Henry's book. "You think you are the Mad Hatter," she said frowning when he sat her in front of a desk filled with sewing supplies. The room filled with top hats all made sense.

"No, I know I'm the Mad Hatter, and you are going to make me a new hat. One that can take me home," Jefferson said.

"I don't know how to sew, let alone make a hat. My mother is the Mayor, and I'm sure she would lend me some money so I could buy you a new one," Evelyn said feeling very defeated. Sure, her situation could be much worse, but here she was with a madman who was forcing her to make a hat.

He hit the table with his fist and made her jump, "Regina is the reason why I'm in this mess in the first place. I will keep you here forever, just as she has taken my Grace away from me, until you can make me a magical hat."

"Let's just say for a moment that everything in the story book is real and my Mom really is the Evil Queen and you're the Mad Hatter. You gave her false hope knowing what she was going to become, and that is more despicable than anything she has ever done to you," Evelyn said as she threaded her needle, not believing for a second that they were all fictional characters.

Jefferson raised his eyebrow with a sinister smile. "Oh, naive child, 28 years gives one plenty of time to practice at being the perfect mother, not the Evil Queen. And when the curse breaks and everyone unites, you'll remember that you denied it and let her reign of terror continue. You've lived it and suffered for it, and don't think for a moment that you won't continue to pay the price just for being the daughter of the Evil Queen."

"Why would anyone choose to believe what Rumplestiltskin showed you in a mirror, let alone a little girl?" Evelyn said, trying not to let him get to her. It wasn't even real. "This is stupid."

"It's only stupid because you don't believe."

"Then maybe you should just wait until the curse breaks because there is no way I can make a magic hat that can take you home, and Grace won't remember you anyway," Evelyn challenged.

Jefferson contemplated her words and realized that even if she somehow got it to work, he would be stealing Paige away from her family. If they made it back to the Enchanted Forest, he could find a potion that would make her remember, but it was risky. He needed the Savior, "Then you better hope that Emma can make me a hat, or you and Mary Margaret can stay here forever."

...

Once Emma had knocked out Jefferson she quickly untied Evelyn and Mary Margaret. Mary Margaret was put back into her jail cell, while Evelyn was safely returned home.

Now, Regina was on the hunt to bring Jefferson down, even though he had gone missing as well. Evelyn just wanted to forget. First Graham and now Jefferson; it was getting to the point where all the fairy tale nonsense was happening too frequently for it to be a coincidence.

But Evelyn couldn't believe. Where would that leave her if Regina really was the Evil Queen?

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Now that I got a new phone, I forget to update because all my documents/outlines are now on my laptop. Beg me to update, so I remember lol. I'm also in my last semester of college now, and I am super stressed out about my future (even though I need to stop worrying about finding a job... but anxiety ugghh). Virtual hugs and reviews are appreciated!


	15. Heart of Darkness

**... The Enchanted Forest...**

"I'm leaving to go visit the summer palace today," Sky said as she watched Dylan knead a slab of dough. He looked up quickly not realizing she was there. "I'll be gone for a while, and I wanted to say goodbye."

Her hair was in a single french braid twisting at her shoulder before it rested on her chest. Smoky shadow painted her eyelids and they were lined in black. He had never seen her with any sort of prominent make up before. He found himself unable to look away.

"What's wrong?" She asked too naive to realize he was staring at her because she looked nice.

He could tell the red velvet riding jacket and black leather pants were new, as he had only seen her wear the same blue cotton set. "Nothing. You just look different. It's a good different though."

"Mother is going to let me ride with her," she said excitedly recalling the moment when she was shocked to hear Regina agree. She was pleasantly surprised when her mother begrudgingly extended out the invitation. She didn't expect to be granted the permission to ride by her mother's side. "Just until she deems appropriate of course, but I don't have to stay in the carriage the entire time."

"How did you ever manage that? She has to know that you'll be passing through several main roads," Dylan said wondering why the Evil Queen would let her be out in the open when they would eventually come across people.

"I don't know, she just said that I could. Of course I didn't ask why just in case she changed her mind! I have never been to the summer palace before!"

Although he had a sinking feeling in his stomach, her happiness was contagious. He knew how much she wanted to leave the palace. "Then I will be eagerly awaiting your return, your highness."

"Well it's not like I am going to be gone forever," she said playfully. He made it seem like they were never going to see each other again.

"No," he said, "I suppose you won't."

...

While Sky was initially excited, the trip wasn't quite as glamorous as she thought it was going to be. She had to ride several paces behind her mother and was not allowed to speak. The snow was falling in fluffy clumps, and it was beautiful. However, her cheeks and ears were starting to get cold, and she didn't want to seem weak by complaining. She would be forced to sit in the carriage anyway, and that was not an option.

None of the black knights surrounding her would respond to her whispered questions, and it made her feel invisible as she desperately tried to get their attention. To pass the time she glared at the back of her mother's head, and imagined her slipping off the saddle and falling on her royal behind. It wasn't very nice, but her mother wasn't being nice when she told her to shut up or she would have to walk.

"Do you think it would be funny if Mother fell off her high horse into the snow?" She asked to the knight that was holding her lace umbrella. She hoped he cracked a smile under that dreadful looking helmet. "Maybe it would run away, and then she would have to walk."

"Careful, your highness," he whispered back. Regina was too far up to hear them, but she looked back and glared at Sky, who purposely ignored her. "We are getting closer to the market."

"So you do speak," Sky sighed, but she was excited to get closer to civilization.

She nearly fell off her horse when she saw people walking further up the road. She was so excited that she didn't notice the knight's undertone of warning when he bellowed, "Clear the road. Bow your head to your Queen and the Princess." Everyone quickly parted and stood on the edge of the snowy road.

The adults bowed their heads down when Regina passed, smirking as they looked at her with fear. However, Sky smiled brightly as she passed. The princess felt uneasy as most of them flinched when she met their gaze. She hoped that they would have been as fascinated with her as she was with them. Sky grinned as she came up to a group of children, who curtsied as they stared at her with wide eyes. While they never looked away, they didn't smile back. It was a start at least.

Further up, she didn't notice a girl with tangled brown hair squeal in excitement. The girl pulled on her mother's shawl as the woman frantically tried to shush her before they were killed.

"That's Summer," little Addy said to her mother, who vehemently shook her head. "That really is Summer!"

There were a few other families that belonged to Addy's village. All of the girls and boys who had played with Summer when Dylan brought her over perked up at the realization that their friend was indeed riding a horse right in front of them.

Sky whipped her head around when someone called out Summer and noticed a very energetic Addy, who was jumping and waving her arms in all directions to get her attention. She grinned and put a finger to her lips, hoping no one else would realize her secret. It nearly seemed for nothing because several other children were waving, and Addy's mother stood frozen in shock. Sky didn't know their names, but she recognized them and waved back nonetheless.

...

Snow hid behind the trees on the hill stalking Regina. When she had heard that the Evil Queen and Sky were passing through she knew that today was the day she was going to finish her Stepmother once and for all. In the commotion of Regina's death, she would take her sister before the guards could declare her Queen. Then they would all happily restore order together.

As she aimed her bow at Regina, a tear ran down her cheek. It would all be over, and she would finally be able to go home. She closed her eyes as she let the arrow fly but quickly opened them when she heard a groan and the sound of someone falling heavily on the ground.

"What do you think you're doing? Why would you do this?" Snow shouted as the arrow intended for Regina was now lodged in the insufferable man who kept insisting he knew her. He had made her lose her one shot at taking Regina down, and for that she would never forgive him.

"Your little sister is right there. How do you think she would feel if you killed her mother right in front of her? And worse, what if Rumplestiltskin lied and you accidentally hit her instead? You said you appreciate action more than words. So now, you gonna get both. I love you, Snow, and I know you love Sky Blue, too."

"I don't love you. I don't even remember you, and I need to free my sister from Regina. She is better off without her," Snow said as her face hardened again. She would have never hurt Sky; she was trying to save her.

"I would rather die than let you fill your heart with darkness," he said pleading for her to remember.

"No one has ever been willing to die for me," she said thinking of the time she first met Regina. She pushed it out of her mind because Regina was too good of a rider for it to be considered risking her life to save a child she didn't know.

"No one you can remember," he groaned in pain trying to keep the arrow still in his chest. He stared at Snow with sad eyes as another tear fell down her cheek. She leaned in and kissed him, hoping he was right about the true love part.

They both felt the rush of magic as Snow smiled into the kiss. Her memories were suddenly restored. "Charming!" She gasped and cupped his cheek. They both laughed in delight, embracing each other as if they had been separated for much longer.

Snow eventually turned back to look through the trees trying to get a glimpse of Sky. She walked a bit further down the hill and smiled, "Oh, Charming, she's beautiful. I haven't seen her in so many years," she whispered as he slowly came up behind her. For a moment, she had thought Sky was smiling right at her, but she was looking at a few children who were trying to get her attention. Snow came to the most glorious revelation "She's not evil. She almost looks happy."

"She's a child," he spoke. "She probably doesn't even know."

"We have to take her; I can't wait another moment," Snow looked at him desperately, but he shook his head.

"We can't sabotage this mission just because we couldn't wait a little bit longer. I promise you that we will save her when the time is right, and that I will find the best experts to fix her if Regina has poisoned her mind. We can take her in as our own, if you would like that better," he said putting his arms around Snow's shoulders. "But for now, we can only hope that she is happy."

Snow sadly agreed as George's soldiers soon caught them unaware.

...

Noticing that Summer wasn't going to stop, Addy took to skipping slightly ahead of the horse so she wouldn't be covered by one of the knights. Some of the others started following, too. Onlookers stood frozen at the curious children who followed the mysterious evil princess. Addy's mother had gone into shock and was being tended to by an elderly woman, as had many of the parents whose children seemed to be infatuated with the royal.

"Where are you going?" Addy asked, trudging along in her oversized boots.

"Can't you stop? My feet are getting tired," a little blonde girl complained as another boy nodded in agreement.

"I can't. I'm going to the summer palace," Sky responded while the black knights seemed to be ignoring her band of followers all together. "I'll be back soon, and your parents won't like it if they can't see you."

"But you haven't given us a proper good bye," Addy whined. "We haven't seen you in forever!"

"I know, but this is going to have to be as proper as it can given the circumstances," Sky said feeling a little bad that she hadn't gone to their village in a while. Her mother had been home more often, and she didn't want to arouse any suspicion if she was missing for a few hours.

But Addy wasn't satisfied with that answer. She missed her friend and wasn't going to leave without a hug. She quickly weaved in between the black knights, and once they noticed was going on, they scrambled to catch her. Sky had no time to tell the girl to stop before she took a running leap and managed to grab ahold of the reigns that loosely hung down the horse's side due to Sky barely holding them.

The young girl screamed as the horse started thrashing. She let go and fell straight on her back. The horse reared, and Sky wrapped her arms around his neck to bring her weight forward. Without thinking, she swung her leg around and jumped off. Sky quickly rolled out of the way when she gathered Addy in her arms before her horse could squish them both.

For a few seconds both girls lied in the snow waiting for the adrenaline to pass, until a swarm of guards surrounded them. They didn't notice the other people drop to their knees as the Queen got off her horse looking murderous.

"You should have seen your face," Addy said giggling as Sky rolled her eyes and stood up.

"You shouldn't have done that," Sky said sternly.

"I just wanted a hug," Addy said pouting, as she held her arms out. Sky sighed and hugged the little girl. When she looked up there seemed to be a line forming of the kids who were following her because of Addy. "Your jacket is soft, and I'm going to miss you."

"Close your eyes," Sky said as white magic swirled in her palm. When she told Addy to open, she was holding a little brown teddy bear with a blue ribbon tied around its neck. All of the other children were astonished to also find a bear at their feet no matter where she had passed them in line. "Now you have something to remember me by."

She hugged the other children one by one and smiled at their enthusiasm. Instead of asking the guards to lead her back to where her horse was waiting, she started walking in the direction of which she came. The wandering children trailed on her heels, and the common folk looked at her in awe as she held Addy and another little girl's hand leading them back to their parents.

As she passed, several people noticed their satchels had gotten heavier, and each of them was surprised to find a bundle tied with a blue ribbon.

A woman with two young children stepped forward, each with a bear in their hands, looked at her with watery eyes, "Bless you, your highness." Soon murmurs of agreement were heard, and many were hopeful about the future. The tyranny wouldn't last forever.

All the while, Regina seethed once she pushed a few of the guards aside to see what Sky was doing and why the guards weren't punishing the nasty creature who had nearly gotten her child killed. She could do nothing as Sky gallivanted with the peasants, no matter how much she wanted to murder every last one of them.

Regina nodded and two of the guards went to fetch her daughter. When Sky finally came back she flinched at her mother's intense look of disapproval.

"Get in the carriage," Regina said callously grabbing the back of her jacket and dragged her away. Sky whimpered as her mother pulled her in and sat down on the opposite side. "I should have had that little brat dragged from the back of your horse to punish her for what she did to you."

Sky looked at her in horror, "But I was fine. My horse would have killed her if I didn't try to save her."

"Their lives should mean nothing to you. They are nothing more than then dirt on your boots," Regina spat imagining her heart collection growing. Sky looked to the side with tears rolling down her cheeks wondering how all of a sudden her mother became so heartless.

Even then, she didn't believe Regina was the Evil Queen. And in the end she was the one who had fallen off the horse.

...

Deep in the dark castle, Rumplestiltskin shattered his mirror as the unintended Savior had just committed her first act of valor, and the future was looking grim for his plans.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I have always loved this scene in the show (1x16), and I have had this planned for a very long time. Did anyone notice that I kind of added a parallel of when Snow and David saw little Emma? Please review and tell me what you think!


	16. On the Very Last Day

**... Storybrooke ...**

After Sidney's confession to holding Kathryn hostage, Emma decided that she wasn't bluffing when she threatened Regina with taking Henry away from her. While there were many logistical concerns, her biggest worry was how anyone could manage to convince a judge that Regina was unfit to be a parent when there was still Evelyn to consider.

Emma decided that she was going to battle for Evelyn as well. It was easy for Emma to believe that Regina had abused Evelyn as a child. Sometimes, she could see the hopelessness in Evelyn's eyes, and it reminded her of what she looked like as a foster child. Mary Margaret and August didn't think so, but Emma didn't need their opinions to know that Evelyn was a damaged child, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Emma had once believed that the pain and depression was normal, too.

August thought Emma should be focusing on breaking the curse and bringing Regina down. The last thing Emma needed was to fight for custody of Regina's children and lose before she was on a much better playing field. However, he needed the curse to break before he completely turned to wood. Therefore, he would try to convince Emma to believe and discourage her battles with Regina.

As he walked past the school to see if Emma was picking up Henry, he saw Evelyn- _Sky Blue_ \- sitting on a bench reading a book. It seemed as if school had recently got out due to the amount of children that had also been outside. Perhaps she was waiting for Henry.

He studied her for a moment and was brought back into the past. August remembered that she spent most of her time playing the piano or singing while she lived at Snow and Charming's castle. He would never admit it, but he spent most of his free time hiding under the furniture to listen to her. He used to think it was beautiful that she would get so emotional that sometimes her tears plopped on the keys and her fingers would slip.

Emma thought she was abused physically. He knew she was abused by lies, fear, and mistrust. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and he hoped she would feel the same. It would be better for her to let old wounds heal, while the truth about Daniel would eventually be fresh. He idolized a girl who placed a smile on her face as she lie broken on the inside, and he didn't know. August was wiser now.

If there was anyone in Storybrooke that got a happier life, it was _Sky_.

"I didn't know that you liked to read," August said as he sat next to her on the bench. She slammed the book shut and quickly looked up. "Harry Potter is always a good choice."

"You don't know anything about me," Evelyn said as she scooted further away from him on the bench. After the stint with Jefferson, Regina didn't want her or Henry to take the bus. Now, another man was trying to talk to her on school property no less as she waited for her mother to pick her up.

"No, I don't suppose you would remember," he said twirling a blue ribbon in his hand.

"If you are going to tell me you were Pinocchio or someone else as equally stupid, don't bother," Evelyn said rolling her eyes. She was done with psycho adults who believed Henry's book was real.

"I'm a friend of Emma's, and I was trying to find her," August said chuckling. Even if she had technically insulted him, it amused him that she correctly guessed who he was. "You're Henry's sister, and I thought that Emma might pick him up from school."

"You won't find Emma here," Evelyn said. Emma had been staying away, since Regina started picking them both up from school.

"Well, it was worth a shot," August said and stood up as he saw Henry running towards them. He waved at the boy, and Henry waved back. "Oh, and Evelyn, you should sing the song about the horses."

Evelyn was confused as August abruptly left. She didn't know which song that referred to, nor had August heard her sing. She was broken out of her thoughts as Henry sat down on the bench.

"What were you and August talking about?" Henry asked curiously. Evelyn didn't realize that Henry already knew the man. Of course he would.

"Oh, nothing really. He wanted to find Emma," Evelyn said as Henry started whistling a tune.

She was going to tell him to stop, until she realized she knew it from somewhere. "Henry, what song is that?"

"I don't know, Mom hums it sometimes," Henry said indifferently.

The lyrics were on the tip of her tongue, but it surely couldn't have been a song about horses.

* * *

 **... The Enchanted Forest ...**

"I made this for you as a welcome home gift," Dylan said handing her a crudely made flag. He was happy that she was finally home after spending several months at the Summer Palace.

The light blue fabric that had been cut to make the field was dingy and fraying on the ends. The other embellishments were sewn by an inexperienced hand, and the crown was hanging off on one end. It was almost a replica of her mother's sigil.

"Why did you make me a personal sigil?" Sky asked. Even though she liked his concept better, she didn't think Regina would take too kindly to the idea of her getting her very own.

"You don't know what you've done by saving my sister. I can never thank you enough, and you gave people food in the winter and toys to the children. You deserve it," Dylan said seriously. Not only did everyone in the village talk about how Summer was actually the mysterious princess, they talked about her acts of compassion.

People started wearing blue ribbons and fabric around their wrists in defiance of the Evil Queen's rule. It was a scary thought, but many people could feel a revolution brewing. Many turned to Dylan to get the princess to help them. He had to start the separation of her and her mother somehow, so the new sigil was a way for people to support her, and so she could be her own person.

"I was thinking that maybe you could use your magic to make better ones, so I could hand them out to other villages. Maybe with a protection spell embedded with them?" He asked.

"I could, but I'm not sure it would do much," Skye said wondering what all this was about.

"It would give people hope," he said. The Evil Queen was spending more time searching for Snow White and terrorizing villages instead of staying in the castle. He hoped that a protection spell would deter her from going to that village. Many of the adults in his village agreed.

Sky waved her hand and a stack of expertly made flags appeared on the table in a hefty stack. She didn't truly understand, but if it made Dylan happy and gave others hope, there was no reason for her to refuse.

Dylan looked on in wonder as she waved her hand and a white sparkling light fell over the flags. Her magic was beautiful. _She_ was beautiful, but he would never admit it. Not out loud anyway.

The Blue Fairy had mentioned that Princess Sky Blue was going to be their Savior, and that was the only reason why she had responded to his wish to help teach her magic. But the Blue Fairy stopped coming around altogether, and now it was his mission to help guide her while she brought down Regina. The process was slow, but she would never believe him if he came out and said that her mother was the Evil Queen. She was quick to believe almost anything, but she just didn't see how horrible her mother was to her let alone anyone else.

As he brought the flag to his village and one close by, he made promises that he was helping the Princess bring down Regina. He knew that one day it would happen.

Unfortunately, while he was taking baby steps, Rumplestiltskin was trying to take leaps in a different direction.

* * *

… **Storybrooke…**

"I think David and Mom should date," Evelyn casually said to Henry as they were watching TV. She had been upstairs the whole time Regina and David were having dinner, and she didn't want to intrude by coming down to eat with them.

She didn't think it went too well judging by the fact that a mirror was broken after David left, but that didn't mean she couldn't whisper in David's ear to give her mother another chance. After all, David was Dad material, and she thought that maybe Henry would benefit from having a male figure in the house.

Henry was too shocked to speak. Of course that was a terrible idea! Prince Charming and Snow belonged together after all.

"Come on, just think about it. I think they would be cute together. Besides, I like David, you like David, hopefully David likes us. There is just too much baggage with him and Mary Margaret," Evelyn said.

"They can't be together! Mom's the Evil Queen and he's Prince Charming. By definition they aren't compatible!" Henry shrieked.

"Oh come on, if David didn't belong with Snow White, you would have to admit that they would be a cute couple," Evelyn chuckled as she grabbed a handful of popcorn out of the bowl Henry was holding.

He pondered for a moment before responding, "Okay, I'll admit it, but that's still not the point."

"Oh sure it is! Don't you want a dad?" Evelyn asked. She was genuinely curious to know how he felt about that. Until recently, Evelyn never really noticed that she had gone nearly all her life without having one.

"I don't know. Emma said that my birth father is dead, so I never thought about it any more after that," Henry said. "Why? Do you?"

"If David was my dad, then yes," Evelyn smiled. Henry rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well, he sort of was back in the Enchanted Forest. You know, after you found out Mom was the Evil Queen and the Charmings took you in. I'm sure when you remember you'll have that again," Henry pointed out. All he had to do was continue to make sure Emma stayed in Storybrooke because he felt that the end of the curse was near.

"I don't think I'll have to worry about that. If you are right, then I'll have bigger problems," Evelyn sighed.

"They'll probably fight over you," Henry chuckled and leaned in to put his head on her shoulder.

"I doubt you'll be in the clear, mister," She said playfully poking his nose. Henry smiled and swatted her hand away.

"Maybe. Or maybe when Mom and the Charmings are fighting over you, I'll sneak around to the light side before Mom notices me!" Henry said, thinking it was an excellent plan. Then Emma and him could hide until it was safe when the Charmings brought back Evelyn.

Henry set down the popcorn on the coffee table and grabbed one of the decorative couch pillows. Evelyn raised her eyebrow as he hit her with the pillow. She turned around and grabbed the nearest one to get him back.

Henry stood on the couch and started jumping as Evelyn kicked off her flats to do the same. Evelyn was much better at blocking than Henry was, but they continued to jump until their pillows collided. Henry's flew into the air and landed on the popcorn bowl, efficiently knocking it over. They both started laughing.

Henry scrambled to get his pillow as Evelyn jumped off the couch and started running towards the kitchen. He chased after her, nearly falling a few times.

"Evie?" He called as he made his way back to the family room. He didn't know where she went.

"Boo!" She yelled, making Henry jump. Evelyn ran up the stairs before Henry could say anything, and he bounded up behind her.

Regina came home to chaos. Popcorn was all over her white carpet, the couch was squished and missing pillows, and her children were laughing and playfully screaming upstairs. She gathered that they were jumping on the bed from the squeaking and hoped it wasn't hers.

Normally, she would have demanded that they come downstairs to clean up the mess they made. She would have scolded them for hitting each other with her expensive decorative pillows and berated them for jumping on the furniture. But as she poured herself a glass of wine, a tear fell down her cheek, and she smiled.

She would take their loudness and chaos every day for the rest of her life, if it meant that she would get to keep them.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Evil Charming is my secret noncanon obsession- but don't fear, they aren't going to be together in this story.


	17. Sins of the Mother

**... The Enchanted Forest...**

Now that Sky was back from the Summer Palace, Rumplestiltskin would visit her several times a week, and each time he would show her the Evil Queen. Sometimes, Regina would be riding in her carriage or doing normal things. Other times she would be threatening villagers, and they would occasionally witness her ripping out a heart or two.

No matter what it was that Sky saw, she didn't believe it. She refused to believe that her mother was the Evil Queen. She denied the fact that Regina was killing and ordering villages to be decimated. Instead, the princess believed that Rumplestiltskin was creating illusions meant to scare her. No matter how many times she told him to stop coming, he would randomly turn up and force her to watch Regina in the mirror. It had been going on for weeks, and she was sick of it. She had been spending more time with Henry and actually began attending her lessons again, so she wouldn't be alone. Dylan was traveling to other villages to give them the flags, so she didn't have his company to fall back on. Rumplestiltskin never came if there were people around.

After deciding the child would never believe him no matter what Regina did as they watched, he opted for a new tactic- one that was guaranteed to work. Rumplestiltskin appeared in Sky's bedchamber, as she was getting ready for bed, knowing that she would believe that her mother was the Evil Queen before the night was over.

"Go away, I'm going to bed," Sky said as she tried to focus on her book, rather than the infuriating man. He ripped the book from her hand as she tried to turn the page, and it landed with a hard thud across the room. She glared up at him, and he giggled.

Rumple waved his hand and her nightgown transformed into a black velvet riding outfit, and her once bare feet were clad in shiny black boots. She didn't understand and tried to kick the shoes off, until she was lifted closer to him with magic.

"Maybe you'll believe me if I show you," Rumple said as magic engulfed both of them.

Sky landed on her back while Rumple ended up in the same position as he had been in her bedchamber. They were outside in a forest somewhere, and Sky wanted to go home. Rumplestiltskin started walking away from her towards some large trees, and she had half a mind to just lie there. However, it was dark out, so she quickly got up and followed him, fearful of the creatures of the night. It took her a moment to register that she knew where they were at when they came up to a large clearing.

All of the villagers were herded out of their homes, commanded to stand before their Queen. Black knights surrounded the perimeter as Regina walked up and down scrutinizing the crowd. The people huddled closer together and trembled whenever she met their gaze.

"It's not real," Sky murmured as she stood there in horror. "It's not real."

"Oh, it's very real," Rumple said, and threw a rock. It hit one of the Black Knights' helmets, causing him to stumble backwards. A few of them turned to look in their direction, but they would see nothing for Rumple had concealed them with magic. "Who do you think gave the false information that Snow White was seen in this area?"

Sky went numb and didn't know what to do as her mother went up to a man and demanded to know where Snow White was.

"I don't know, your majesty. She never passed through here," the man stammered as Regina grabbed his nightshirt. He shook with fright as Regina smirked at him.

"I think you are all lying to me," Regina said turning toward the rest of the crowd, who were now cowering in fear. "Lying to your Queen is treason."

Regina recognized some of the children who seemed so interested in talking to Sky when they were heading to the Summer Palace. It was only a matter of time before she found out which village her daughter was sneaking off to after being tipped off by some of her guards.

"We aren't lying, we swear," a woman, most likely the man's wife cried hysterically. Regina let go of the man's shirt, and turned to the woman. She was crying as she held the hand of a little boy, who was also whimpering a bit. Both of them had blue ribbons around their wrists, and Regina narrowed her eyes.

"And do you know what the penalty is for treason?" Regina asked looking straight at the child. He shook his head, too young to know what that even meant. Regina laughed as she looked back at the crying woman. "Death."

White light appeared in Sky's hand as Regina pulled the woman's heart out. Everyone gasped in horror, and Sky gulped, tears pricking her eyes. She was going to save the villagers, no matter the consequences. In that moment, Rumplestiltskin pulled out the Shears of Destiny, and a white string-like light came out of Sky's back and connected to the Shears. Sky held up her hand, meaning to throw the magic at her mother. However, the magic in her palm dissipated, as did all her courage when he cut the string with a wide grin. Sky sunk to her knees with a sob as Regina crushed the woman's heart, and Rumplestiltskin danced with glee now that he had made certain that the daughter of Snow White and her Prince Charming would be the Savior who would break the eventual curse.

There were several screams as the woman's body crumpled to the ground, and her husband and child wailed in despair. Sky's world had completely fallen apart with the death of the woman.

Regina walked away and turned to one of her trusted Knights. "Kill them all," she said noticing most of the people had blue ribbons around their wrist as well. She knew what it meant, and she did not like disloyalty.

"And the children?" He asked.

"I said them all," Regina said as she stepped up to her carriage. "And make sure to kill that little brat who startled my daughter's horse first."

"No, please! Don't!" Sky screamed as she cried. It was no use, for no one could hear her, except Rumplestiltskin, and he would do nothing. The last thing she heard was the sound of swords coming out of their sheaths as Rumplestiltskin transported her back to the castle.

She startled several of the servants who were cleaning by appearing in the middle of the floor. She stood up and trembled as tears clouded her vision.

"Your highness?" A maid said cautiously as the poor girl sobbed uncontrollably. A mirror next to the princess shattered as she screamed in agony at what she had witnessed. The servants took a step back as some of the guards came over and tried to get her to follow them.

She screamed all the way up to her bedchambers as a guard, followed by Henry carried her up. Henry stayed as the nanny, Sophia, once again stripped the child out of her clothes and put her nightgown back on.

"Please tell me what happened," Henry pleaded, but her only response was to cry harder or scream louder. He wished Regina was there to give her a potion that would help her calm down, but she wasn't. Henry stayed with her throughout the night as she continued to scream. The only thing he managed to get out of her all night was that whatever was causing her this much distress had to do with the family of that kitchen boy she was fond of.

...

"Regina, please you need to come home," Henry said through the mirror. While the genie was reluctant to help him send a message to Regina, Henry had threatened to get every mirror in the palace removed before Regina came home if he didn't help. "It's Sky."

"Try harder to keep her occupied," Regina said, unable to waste time going home to entertain her daughter. Surely her father could find activities for her to do, since she was nearly to King George's castle to capture Snow White's prince.

"You, don't understand. Something is wrong, Regina. She cries and screams until her voice is hoarse, and she is afraid to go to sleep. It's been a few days, and she barely speaks. I don't know what to do," Henry said feeling defeated. Regina was the only other person Sky might confide in. "I think something happened."

Regina rolled her eyes, thinking the situation surely couldn't have been that bad. After all, Henry assured her that Sky would be watched and forbidden to leave the castle. What could have scared her that much? "You better hope there is something wrong with her." Regina said. "I'll be home soon."

...

"You know it's a beautiful day to go outside, your highness," Sophia said as she opened the curtains. It was quite evident that Sky didn't sleep, as the poor girl stared catatonically at the wall. The nanny sighed, "Will you be dressing yourself today?"

Sky had been using magic ever since she had appeared in the hallway. No one had an explanation whether this was a new discovery or if the Queen was aware. Everyone had been on edge, knowing something was amiss. Whispers that the princess knew about Regina circulated through the palace and terrified everyone.

There was no answer as Sophia laid out a black dress with red embellishments on her bed. Sky took one look at it and transformed her nightgown into a light blue riding jacket and white pants. The nanny didn't know what to make of her sudden refusal to wear anything in her closet.

"I thought you might want to wear a dress, since the Queen will be home soon," Sophia said and smiled. She hoped that whatever had plagued the girl's mind could be fixed by talking to her mother.

"What?" Sky said practically jumping out of bed. "What do you mean she is coming home?"

Sophia was startled for the princess started pacing around the room and cried. Sophia hadn't heard her speak in days. "She is worried about you. We all are."

"No, I don't have time," Sky said, thinking of running away. She hoped that she would figure out what to do by the time Regina came home. She couldn't stay, not while her mother murdered people and wanted to kill Snow White, but she didn't know where to go. Instead, she flung herself on her bed hopelessly and cried into her pillow.

Sophia sat down beside her and began to rub her back in a soothing motion. Sky eventually stopped crying and fell asleep. The nanny stood watch over the sleeping princess until the Queen finally arrived, to which she curtsied and quickly left the room.

Regina let Sky sleep as she tucked her hair behind her ear and hummed soothingly. Henry had told her that she hadn't truly slept in days, and she had already prepared a calming potion in case she woke up crying. In the meantime, Regina played with Sky's hair to keep herself occupied

When Sky began to stir, Regina put her arm around her back and propped her up. She brought the cup to her daughter's lips and poured a few drops into her mouth before setting the goblet down on the nightstand. Sky swallowed as her eyes fluttered open. Even though she only had one sip, the potion made her sadness fade considerably as she blinked to take in her surroundings.

"Don't touch me," Sky said when she was awake enough to realize that her mother was caressing her cheek. Instead of feeling sad and helpless, the potion cleared her mind and made her angry. Regina didn't listen, so Sky turned away and sat on the side of her bed, not facing her mother, "I said don't touch me!"

"What happened?" Regina sighed. Henry alluded to the fact that a child that she had been playing with stopped playing with her. Regina sympathized a little bit, but she knew that Sky would get over it soon.

A million things went through her mind- a million accusations all of which Regina would deny. So instead of saying anything, Sky decided to show her something she couldn't deny. A white light appeared in her palm, and she threw it, completely destroying her vanity. She turned back to Regina, who tried hard to maintain her expression, and waved her hand again as the pieces floated back together. It looked as if it was never blasted to pieces.

"How long has this been going on?" Regina asked. This was a problem, but one she knew how to handle. To think that Henry thought Sky's issue was over some child, not over the fact that she was afraid of what she discovered she could do.

 _Months,_ she wanted to say. "I could ask you the same question," is what came out. Sky had never seen her mother look more speechless in her entire life. She wanted to hide under her covers, but the potion she had unknowingly been given seemed to calm her fears. "I used to hope that one day you would come home and never leave again because... you had finally found my sister. I thought everything would get better when we were a family again. And all this time... my mother was the Evil Queen."

Regina's eyes flashed while Sky's flooded with tears. "I know what you did, what you've done. And... how could you? You knew I went to that village and you still killed them all anyway. I can't fathom... I don't even want to understand why. And Snow? All this time I wished over every star that she was going to come home!"

Regina's body shook with anger- anger over Snow White and why her precious child had to care so much about the insufferable bandit. Anger that her baby would never be able to understand that everything Regina ever did was to avenge Daniel and her daughter's lost future. Anger that Sky even found out at all.

"I defended you. After all of the allusions and people telling me to my face, I wouldn't see it because I loved you too much," Sky said. "But I can't let you keep doing this."

"You are in no position to stop me," Regina said rather calmly for how betrayed she felt. She would not lash out or hurt the only person who kept her sane. Instead, she would make sure Sky wouldn't remember anything. Regina conjured a goblet filled with forgetting potion, and held it out to her, "Everything will get better, you'll see."

"No, I'm not going to drink that," Sky said and took a step back. She had to remember or else Snow would be doomed until Regina finally killed her.

"I don't want to force you," Regina said standing up. "But I will."

"No!" Sky said and threw up a shield when she noticed her mother was going to use magic on her. When Regina's magic hit the shield, it flickered and fizzled out.

"You will not be able to fight me and win, dear. Make this easier on everyone and drink it," Regina said sternly, but she was slightly relieved that Sky's amateur magic was no match for her.

Sky shook her head and tried to run out the door, but Regina's magic was quicker. Regina transported both of them into the dungeons, where she quickly transformed one of the cells into a luxury magic-neutralizing solitary confinement room.

"The sooner you drink or eat something, the better you'll feel and the sooner you can come out of your time out," Regina said and threw Sky inside.

...

David wondered what kind of person would be given the completely enclosed silver cell next to him as he swore loudly after Regina had taunted him with the apple. He had to get out, but there was no use. It was probably better if Snow didn't come to rescue him anyway, since Regina was after her.

Sky sat on the floor with her knees bent close to her chest, trying to breathe through the hunger pains. She was thirsty and felt faint. She had passed out once already, and the only thing keeping her going was the man next to her that kept saying inappropriate words after her mother had left. She wondered what he looked like.

When it came time for the servants to come bring her more food, David watched in confusion as they went into the mysterious cell with a tray heaping with fruit, meat, bread, and sweets and brought back a cold and uneaten breakfast platter.

To be honest, spending time in her personal cell wasn't entirely terrible. She had a luxurious bed, clothes, books, and the servants came to fill up the tub and gave her baths (where she would drink the bath water when the servant wasn't paying attention). However, when they brought in the new food trays, it was hell. It had only been two days and she was at the breaking point. Like always, the servants came out with a grimace and sighed as they locked up the cell.

David heard a defeated groan, and the sound of someone crying. "Can you hear me?" He called to the person next door. The crying stopped for a moment.

"Yes. Can you hear me?" The voice whimpered. David was horrified that the voice belonged to a child.

"I can hear you," he called. "It will be all right. I know that this is scary and whatever you have done doesn't warrant you being in a cell, but have hope."

"I'm not scared," the girl said determined. She was in no danger, and if she forgot then it wouldn't matter. "I just can't hold out much longer, and no one is going to save me."

"Are you hurt?" David asked. Servants went in the cell periodically throughout the day, so maybe the child was sick or injured.

"No, I'm hungry," Sky said, and would figure she would have to explain. "The food that they bring in is laced with a potion that will make me forget the past few months."

He wondered what the girl could know to make it so the Evil Queen would want to erase her memory. "Then what do you know that the Queen doesn't want you to?"

"Everything," the girl said, while David sat confused. "Are you really in love with my sister?" She asked quietly, and David barely heard her.

"Your sister?" David questioned. "I'm in love with Snow White."

"Yes, that's who I meant, Snow White, my sister," Sky said as David put two and two together.

"You're the Queen's daughter, Sky Blue," David voiced aloud trying to process everything. "She's starving you because you figured it out."

"Sometimes it's hard to remember what Snow looks like... I hope you can save her someday," Sky said, even though it was no use. At least her mother wasn't going to actually kill Snow like she had previously planned. A tear had fallen down her cheek, and she wished she hadn't confronted her mother. She should have run away when she had the chance. Instead, she let sadness and despair incapacitate her.

"Me too," David said as he too began to weep at his situation and for the little girl next to him.

…

The next morning David struggled to break the lock on his cell with a rock after Sky mumbled incoherently. It was only a matter of time before the servants would bring in a new tray of food, and he didn't think she would be able to refuse anymore.

Luckily, Regina's guards came to get him, and he managed to escape with the Huntsman's help. The man pointed to the key that would unlock Sky's cell, and Charming quickly went back to the dungeons. While he envied her accommodations, he wasted no time in picking up the frail girl from the floor and slumped her over his shoulder.

How he managed to out maneuver several guards while holding the princess he would never know. But he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he had made it far enough into the forest, where it would be hard for the guards to track him down.

David soon faced bigger problems as he and the princess were transported into a different forest, where he had to bargain with Rumplestiltskin in order to find a way out and help get food in Sky's belly.

It was all worth it in the end when he was able to save Snow and rescue Sky.

When she finally woke up, Sky was in a room that she didn't recognize. Sitting next to her on the bed was Snow White, who was smiling and had happy tears in her eyes. Sky's heart had skipped a beat in surprise. "I found you," Snow said as she hugged the younger girl and kissed the top of her head. Sky teared up as well, thinking that she was never going to see her sister again.

…

Back at the Dark Palace, Regina wailed when she realized that Charming was carrying a child when she sent him into the infinite forest, and her guards informed her that the princess was missing from the dungeons.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Since I didn't plan this well in the beginning, this chapter and the next chapter will both be important flashbacks. Then it will mostly be Storybrooke going forward because the curse breaking is coming up. Please review and give me feedback!


	18. Our Daughter

**... The Enchanted Forest...**

As the weeks went by Snow and Charming tried to keep Sky's life as happy as possible while she had to live with knowing her mother was a murderer. They were warring with Regina more frequently than Sky knew, and the Charmings wanted to keep it that way for the time being.

Many of the castle's inhabitants and allies were uneasy by the princess' use of magic and the fairies had suggested putting a cuff on her that would bind her magic; a tactic that they would hope to use on Regina. Snow and Charming had refused, until they were persuaded by Blue that she would be used a test subject and that it was for the greater good.

They presented it to her in the form of a silver bracelet with flower shaped diamonds. The beauty of it did nothing to make Sky feel any better as everyone wanted to take away the one thing that made her special. But she put it on because she was afraid of what would happen if she refused. She thought that if she didn't have magic, then people would stop referring to her as the Evil Queen's daughter. Maybe the looks of fear and mistrust would eventually fade away, and she would only be thought of as Sky Blue, Snow's little sister.

They did, somewhat. However, the bracelet wasn't quite right, and she began to suffer from withdrawal symptoms. It made her irritable and whiny; Snow and Charming were more sympathetic and attentive, but she annoyed everyone else. The Charmings showered her in gifts and affection because it wasn't her fault that the bracelet was a bit faulty and was physically draining her. While the head and stomachaches eventually went away, the feeling of emptiness never faded. Sky always felt like there was a piece missing. And there was always the fact that remained unspoken: she missed her mother and grandfather.

She liked that she had a balcony in her new room and that she could sit on her bed and feel the warm air. It was much smaller than any of the ones in the Dark Palace, but it still made her happy. Sometimes, she would gaze into the horizon, tugging on her bracelet, and wish that her mother and Snow could get along. Little did she know things between them were much worse than she ever thought possible.

Even though Regina was a subject that no one dared to mention to her, Snow knew that Sky missed her. Snow noticed that every time she was casually brought up, Sky would perk up to hear the news, which was why they had to handle Regina's capture delicately.

"I don't understand," Sky said when Snow tried to explain the situation that Regina was imprisoned and awaited execution. Sky thought that they were supposed to be the good guys, and good people didn't kill people.

"She has done unimaginable horrors and has hurt more people than I would like to know. It's for the best," Charming tried to explain as Snow hugged her and tried to wipe the tears off of her cheeks.

"But she's my mother, and..." Sky choked back a sob. While she was horrified at what Regina had done, she didn't want her to die. Snow patted her back and caressed the top of her head. "And I still love her."

Snow glanced at Charming as she blinked away tears, and he nodded, "We will allow you one visit before it happens, so you can have some time in private." Even though the offer was gracious, Sky didn't think so given the circumstances.

Charming, Granny with her crossbow, and a few guards accompanied Sky to Regina's cell. Henry was pacing outside and stopped when he saw his granddaughter. Sky ran up to him and gave him a hug.

"She loves and misses you," Henry whispered into her ear. He hoped that Regina wouldn't push Sky away, making them both feel worse.

"Go on, you can spend all night with him," David said giving her a weak smile as he unlocked the door. He was against the idea of letting her see Regina, but Snow insisted that she should be able to say goodbye. Both were in agreement that Sky would not be allowed to attend the execution.

Regina stood in the corner looking out the tower window. They hadn't told her that she would be able to see her daughter, and she didn't dare hope to see her.

Sky's heart rate quickened as she walked inside the room. She thought her mother still looked beautiful in her plain gray dress and robe, and when their eyes met she ran to her. "I'm sorry. I know you hate me," Sky whimpered as she clung to Regina. She would have drunk the potion when it was first offered to her if she had known her mother's fate.

"How could I ever hate the only person who has been the light in the darkness?" Regina said as a tear fell down her cheek. All she could see was love in her daughter's eyes, and she had done everything for her after all.

When Regina's eyes caught the bracelet, she was enraged. She gently grabbed Sky's wrist and held it up. It was wrong to do that to a child. It was even more wrong that Sky was a prisoner, and she didn't know she wasn't free. But she didn't say anything.

"I don't want you to die," Sky said.

"I know," Regina said kissing the top of her head and holding her close as Charming came into the cell to tell them that the meeting had been long enough. Sky cried and hugged Regina harder in response.

She reluctantly followed Charming out of the cell a few minutes later, crying all the way back to her rooms.

"It won't hurt forever," Snow said soothingly as Snow and Charming tried to console her. Snow would know, she had lost both parents; her mother died when she was about Sky's age. Snow swallowed guiltily as she realized that she would be taking both her parents away from her. She never forgot the moment Regina told her that Daniel was Sky's father right before she had bitten the poison apple.

Soon two servants replaced Snow and David, since they had to attend the execution.

...

Snow knew she couldn't kill Regina. She couldn't be the one responsible for the death of Sky's mother, but she also couldn't kill the woman whom she once adored for saving her. Snow still loved Regina, and she still hoped she could change. When Snow came to visit her in the cell tower, she hoped Regina would pass the test. But she didn't. Regina had tried to kill her with the knife and was shocked when the wound healed.

"We wanted to give you a chance to change, Regina," Charming said. Rather Snow did, and he went along with it. However, he didn't want to be responsible for more of Sky's misery.

"Regina, you are banished. Banished to live alone with your misery," Snow said as Charming placed a hand on her shoulder. Regina glared at her, but she didn't look away.

"I want my daughter," Regina said vehemently. The Charmings had already damaged her enough, and she had only been in their custody for a few months.

"Sky will not be punished because of you," Snow said, unwilling to let Sky go home with Regina. At this point, Snow didn't know who Sky would choose, but she was safer with them.

"As long as you're alive in this world, you can't hurt us. And taking or harming _our_ daughter would hurt us," David said looking Regina dead in the eye. While Regina struggled to get away from the guards, Snow smiled up at David with happy tears in her eyes.

"You saved my life once, and now I've saved yours. So we're even. And if you ever try to hurt anyone in my kingdom again, I will kill you," Snow said.

The Charmings turned to leave while Regina tried to get free and went to go explain the situation to Sky, their _daughter._

...

A year later, Snow White and David were getting ready to be married, and Sky was taking her flower girl duties seriously. Sometimes, she would practice throwing flowers and waving in the ballroom, where preparations for the wedding were already beginning.

David was teaching her to dance in between dress fittings. They would practice every day, and she rarely stepped on his feet any more. While she was eager to learn, David had suggested it because he wanted his second dance to be with her. Snow thought that it was always a good idea to show her off early for marriage proposals, while he brushed talk of that off. Sky was barely twelve years old.

And when the day finally came, David teared up as she gracefully walked down the aisle throwing white rose petals. He held out his hand as she walked up the gazebo steps, and her blue eyes sparkled in happiness as she stood next to him and took his hand.

Snow was an absolute vision as she walked down the aisle, and everyone awed. Sky smiled brightly, while Charming continued to tear up thinking how lucky he was to have such a wonderful family. Everything was perfect as they said their vows, until it suddenly wasn't as they leaned in to kiss. Of course Regina had to show up and ruin everything.

"You're wasting your time, you've already lost. And I will not let you ruin this wedding," Charming said and stood in front of Sky, while Snow clung to him.

"Oh, I haven't come here to ruin anything. On the contrary, dear, I've come to give you a gift," Regina said.

"We want nothing from you," Snow said knowing that whatever gift Regina gave them would only hurt one of them. Snow and David did not come this far to have their family ruined by Regina.

"But you shall have it. My gift to you is this happy, happy day. For tomorrow, my real work begins. Soon, everything you love, everything all of you love, will be taken from you. Forever. And out of your suffering will rise my victory. I shall destroy your happiness, if it is the last thing I do," Regina said and laughed looking out to the cowering crowd. Sky hid behind David and looked at her in fear. She turned back around and waved her hand. Skye's white dress turned black and the white flowers laced in her hair turned red. "Don't worry darling, you shall rise with me, and you shall be the happiest of them all."

Charming threw the sword at her as she disappeared, and Sky cried, for she couldn't make the dress white again without magic.


	19. The Curse

**... The Enchanted Forest...**

When Sky found out that Snow was pregnant, she wasn't excited. Everything was about the baby. They had to prepare for the baby, and that's the only thing anyone ever talked about. Whenever Snow was around someone would gush about the baby.

Both David and Snow knew she had been more sad and secluded than usual, since they could hear the piano when they walked by most of the day. They confronted her about it and even though she didn't want to say anything, she told them the truth.

"Since you're having a baby, you don't need me anymore," Sky said sadly while Snow teared up, ashamed of not talking to her sooner.

"Oh Sky, the baby won't make us love you any less. We will always need you," Snow said and hugged her.

"We chose you to be ours, and we would like you to be the baby's big sister," Charming added. Even if Sky never thought of them as her parents, she was as much their child as the new baby was going to be.

"Really?" Sky said and grinned. They both nodded and pulled her into another hug.

After that day, Sky was more than excited to finally get to have a younger sibling. When they found out the baby was a girl, she was even happier. However, as Regina's curse loomed over them, they all became rather anxious.

...

As Sky looked out her window looking out at the storm clouds, she realized how unfair it was that she wouldn't get to be Emma's sister. Everyone knew the curse was coming soon, and what it meant. When Grumpy called out that the curse was here, she panicked and ran to Snow and David's room, where Snow was screaming.

"She's having the baby," Gepetto said and told her to wait outside as he hurried in to tell him the news that the wardrobe was ready. Once Gepetto left and the baby's cries could be heard, Sky ran into the room and crawled up on the other side of the bed. Snow put her unoccupied hand on Sky's cheek and started to cry. This was supposed to be their happy ending.

"The wardrobe. It only takes one," Snow said sadly as a blast of magic and the whinnying of horses could be heard.

"Then our plan has failed. At least we're together," David said as he looked at all of his girls. Emma's hand latched onto Sky's thumb and she smiled. He wanted to freeze this moment in time forever.

"No. You have to take her. Take the baby to the wardrobe," Snow said frantically.

"Are you out of your mind?" Charming asked. How could they send their infant daughter to an unknown land alone?

"No. It's the only way, you have to send her through." Snow said and looked straight at Sky. "Sweetie, you have to take her. David will protect you both."

"But, she'll be alone," Sky said frowning. "It's not fair."

"You have to promise me you will do this, Sky. It's the only way," Snow ran her hand through Sky's hair. Sky looked up at her with glassy eyes, and she nodded.

"You don't know what you're saying," Charming said as she tried to hand the baby over to Sky.

"No, I do. We have to believe that she'll come back for us. We have to give Emma her best chance," She said as Charming kissed Emma's forehead. Snow started crying and kissed the top of her head. She turned and looked at Sky, "I know how much you wanted to be a big sister, and Emma is so lucky that she has you to be her savior. Promise me that you'll put her in the wardrobe."

Sky hugged Snow and put her face close to Emma's, "I promise."

"Goodbye, Emma." Snow whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks. She carefully placed Emma in Sky's arms as Charming grabbed his sword.

Adrenaline took over as Sky slid off the bed with the baby and walked quickly behind David. Her mother's black knights came up in front of them while David battled them with his sword. One of them had managed to cut the side of his shoulder, but all he could think about was protecting Sky and Emma. When David cut them down, he told Sky to run.

Sky quickly ran to the wardrobe and opened the doors. A tear slid down her cheek, "Bye Emma. I hope you find us one day," Emma fussed. "You'll be okay," Sky said and kissed her cheek before putting her into the wardrobe. Sky shut the doors as more of Regina's men came into the room.

"Stand aside your highness," the knight said unsheathing his sword. Sky stood frozen in front of the wardrobe, too afraid that Emma wouldn't get away.

"Leave her alone," David said as their swords clanged.

The fight didn't last long as the knight ended up stabbing him in the stomach. Sky screamed and ran to him as the same man went over and opened the wardrobe. Sky let out a sigh of relief as Emma wasn't in the wardrobe, and Charming smiled as he lost consciousness. The guards walked out of the room, ignoring the crying princess, they were all under strict orders not to harm her.

"No, no! You can't die! David, please," Sky cried as she tried to wake him up. Blood got on her blue nightgown as she hugged and willed him to open his eyes. She could heal him if she could get the bracelet off. "Please come off!"

Sky tugged on the bracelet as hard as she could and tried to pry it over her fist. She knew she was losing time and pulled it until she scraped the skin off her wrist. "I'm sorry! I don't know what to do." Her wrist bled, and she pulled on the bracelet until she became nauseous. The pain soon became too much and she passed out over his body.

Sky's vision slowly came back, and she saw Snow cradling Charming's head. She was suddenly very cold, as she saw her mother saunter in.

"Oh, don't worry, dear. In a few moments you won't remember you knew him, let alone loved him," Regina said with a grin, until she saw Sky, overly pale and shaking on the floor. She went over to her daughter, knelt down, and held up Sky's mangled wrist. The young girl cried out in pain. "It's a shame really. She could have saved him."

Regina unclasped the bracelet, as only a magic user could, and grimaced as she pocketed it. A purple cloud of magic hovered above Sky's wrist, and the flesh knit itself back together. The color came back to her cheeks, and she managed to drag herself closer to Snow.

"Where is she?" Regina asked as her guards informed her that the child was missing from the wardrobe.

"She got away," Snow said smiling. Everything was going to be okay.

Regina cackled as the ceiling caved revealing a magical vortex that would finally give her the happy ending she desired. Regina magically made Sky float beside her and held her tight, so they would end up together.

"Where are we going?" Snow yelled as the walls started cracking apart and purple magic swirled around them.

"Some place horrible" Regina cackled. "Where the only happy ending will be mine."

"I'm scared," Sky whispered tiredly as everything went black.

...

Regina woke up in an unfamiliar bed in a place she didn't recognize. Her hands immediately went to her hair, missing the usual weight, only to find out that it was short in this new world.

She stood up and went to the window, looking out at her new dominion. It was cloudy, but she didn't care. "I did it," she said in astonishment. "I won!"

Regina backed away from the window and went to her closet. She randomly selected a navy blue dress. It was plain, but still decently elegant even though it was nothing like what she was used to. Once the dress was on, she left her bedroom to explore the rest of the house before she had to be at work (luckily the curse programmed that into her brain). As she walked down the hallway, she saw an open door, and there was someone in it.

Regina stopped in the doorway and nearly shed a tear. Her daughter was in the room putting her folder into her backpack. She was wearing a navy sweater, a plaid skirt, and knee-high socks- her school uniform.

"I'm almost ready, Mom," she said as she put a textbook in her backpack and grabbed the navy headband off of her desk. Her dark hair touched her shoulders, but it was still considerably shorter than what it had been in the Enchanted Forest. "Okay, we can go now."

"Where?" Regina asked as a programmed memory hit her, and her daughter brushed past her and ran down the stairs. She had to walk her to school.

"Come on we'll be late!" She called from downstairs.

Regina walked down the steps and took in more of the house. It wasn't exactly what she would have wanted, but as she looked out one of the front windows, her neighbors weren't so lucky.

"It looks cold out, dear," Regina said as she spotted two coat dresses hanging up on the coat rack. The black one was obviously hers. She took the navy one off the rack and handed it to her daughter. Once she had it on, Regina bent down to button it for her. Regina's eyes caught a white slip of paper in a clear holder on the side of the backpack when she finished buttoning the coat. _Property of: Evelyn Mills_ was written in Regina's handwriting.

"Evelyn?" Regina asked. It was the name that Daniel had picked out for their future daughter; it was his mother's name.

"Yes?" Evelyn asked as she smiled up at her mother. Her blue eyes were hypnotizing, and Regina shook her head. When Evelyn held out her arms expecting a hug, Regina eagerly embraced her and hugged her tightly. She had waited for this moment for over two years.

"Nothing, I just missed you," Regina said as Evelyn smiled and slipped her hand into hers.

"You see me every day," Evelyn pointed out as Regina opened the front door.

As they walked hand in hand down Main Street, only stopping for Evelyn to pet Pongo and beg for a dog, Regina had finally gotten everything she wanted... or so she thought.

* * *

 **... Storybrooke ...**

Emma had come over to tell Regina that she was leaving Storybrooke, and that she just wanted to come see Henry periodically. The morning couldn't have gone better in Evelyn's opinion. Maybe Henry would stop this delusional nonsense when Emma left, and they would all be a happy family again.

Evelyn knew something was wrong when Regina got a call from the hospital. Fantasies of David and Regina being a couple were long forgotten, since she was worried.

"It's Henry, something happened," Regina said, her face turning pale. Her hand shook as she set the phone down, and her insides churned. He couldn't have eaten the turnover.

When they had finally made it to Henry's room in the hospital, Evelyn gasped in shock. Henry had wires and tubes stuck to him everywhere. She went straight to her brother as Emma pulled Regina out of the room. They were yelling at each other, but Evelyn didn't care. She only wanted Henry to be all right.

"It's okay Henry, you'll be fine," She said mainly to reassure herself. She took his hand in her own and smiled. "I'll bet that you were pretty nervous when I got that concussion, too. But the thing is you've always fought for what you believe in, so I know that you'll fight to come back to us."

She would have begged and pleaded with him not to sneak out of the house to say goodbye and hopefully convince Emma to stay if she would have known he was going to end up like this. Henry was supposed to be his vibrant self, not stuck in the hospital. She didn't know what to do. She didn't even know where her mom and Emma went.

Mary Margaret came in the room and sat beside her on the bed holding the storybook. "He's going to make it, you know."

Evelyn hoped with every fiber of her being that she was right. She couldn't imagine a world without Henry; it would be too dull. She squeezed his hand, and Mary Margaret put her arm around her shoulder.

"I think we should read to him," Mary Margaret said as she opened the book to the part where Prince Charming wakes Snow White up from the sleeping curse. "I thought that when I gave Henry this book, it would give him hope. Life doesn't always have a happy ending." She handed the book to Evelyn, and right when she touched it Henry's heart monitor started beeping.

The nurses and Doctor Whale hurried into the room, while Evelyn panicked. The beeping could mean nothing good.

"Nurse, get them out of here, now!" Doctor Whale bellowed as they ushered Mary Margaret out of the room. Another woman tried to get Evelyn out, but she fought back.

"What's happening?" She cried to Doctor Whale, who looked at her sadly. "What's wrong with Henry?"

"His heart rate is dropping. I'm going to need you to wait outside, okay. It is very important for you to stay out of the way," Doctor Whale said as she began to cry. Evelyn reluctantly followed the nurse outside, where she pressed her face up to the glass. She held the storybook tightly as if it was the only thing grounding her to the Earth as they began resuscitation efforts. Henry had to pull through.

It seemed like an eternity passed by as many nurses ran in and out of the room, and she continued to pray for her brother. She wished her mom were there, so they could be scared together. She didn't want to go through this alone. But soon the nurses stopped coming in, and Mother Superior came in the room holding a bible. Henry's machines stopped beeping, and she let out the breath she had been holding in.

Doctor Whale sighed as he went to tell Evelyn that Henry didn't make it. He tried to put on a blank face, since she looked so hopeful. When he opened the glass door she quickly turned to face him. "Evelyn, Henry... well, he didn't make it."

"What do you mean he didn't make it?" Evelyn screamed as she started sobbing. Henry couldn't be dead. She refused to believe it. "You're lying!"

"Evelyn, there was nothing more we can do. I'm sorry," Doctor Whale told the poor girl. This was definitely the worst part of his job, and it should not have happened to one as young as Henry.

"Henry!" Evelyn yelled as she ran into the room. His hand was now cold, and his lips were blue. "Henry, I don't know how I can live without you! Please wake up, please!" It was no use as Henry was gone.

Evelyn didn't know what else to do so she opened the book to a random page. It was one that she didn't remember reading, but she started to anyway between sobs and hiccups, "No one noticed Sky Blue use magic to heal the child's wound, but they did hear her angelic voice ring out to the heavens. It was a song that the Queen had sung to soothe her as a baby; a song that always made every hurt fade away:

" _With enchanted hooves and silken manes,_

 _They chase the violet sky,_

 _Over pastel hills of pink and green,_

 _And yellow mountains high."_ While she was singing the world faded away, she didn't notice her mother or Emma come into the room. She didn't notice their devastated faces. She didn't notice Dr. Whale and Mother Superior crying silently in the corner.

 _So watch for little horses,_

 _Their eyes will be your clue,_

 _And fairy dust and flowers,_

 _And a little magic too."_

When she finished a wave of realization hit her. "Henry, it's the song about the horses," she murmured as she looked at Emma, who had gone over to Henry's bedside. Her mother was crying on Dr. Whale's chest.

Emma leaned down to kiss Henry as she whispered, "I love you." When her lips touched Henry's forehead a wave blew over Storybrooke.

"I love you too," Henry said as people started coming into the room. "You saved me. I think you broke the curse."

Evelyn's hair flew backwards as 13 years of lost memories came flooding back. Her hand immediately went to her wrist, and she let out a sigh of relief that Henry was awake, David was alive, and the bracelet was gone. "True love's kiss," Evelyn said as she launched herself at Henry and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"I can't breathe!" Henry said as people chuckled. Evelyn loosened her grip slightly.

"If I were you, Your Majesty, I'd find a place to hide," Mother Superior said looking at Regina, as she was muttering no.

"Henry, Evelyn… No matter what you think, no matter what anyone tells you, I do love you," Regina said with tears in her eyes. She ran out of the room crying, as she knew that her children were lost to her.


End file.
